>> 


tibrar;^  of  Che  Cheolojical  ^eminavjp 

PRINCETON  •  NEW  JERSEY 


•a^j> 


PRESENTED  BY 

The   Estate   of   the 
Rev.    John  3.   V/iedlnp-er 


THE  PARABLES  AND  THEIR 


MAY  26  1948 
?/CAL 


THE 


PARABLES  BY  THE  LAKE 


BY 


W.  H> THOMSON,  M.D.,  LL.D. 

PROFESSOIt  OF  MATERIA  MFDIOA  ANI)  niBEASES  OF  TIIIC  NRRVOTTS 
SYSTEM,  UNIVEIISITV   MEDIOAI.   OOLLKOK,  N.  Y. 


NEW    YORK 

HARPER    &    BROTHERS    PUBLISHERS 

1895 


Copyright,  1895,  by  Hakper  k  Brothers 

All  rightt  reserved. 


PREFACE 


The  Home  of  tlie  Parables  is  a  land  which 
often  affords  striking  commentaries  of  its  own 
upon  their  meaning.  To  the  writer  of  this 
volume,  as  the  land  of  his  hirth  and  residence 
during  youth,  such  aspects  of  the  Parables 
naturally  would  be  quite  familiar.  This  fact 
accounts  for  the  personal  style  adopted  in  the 
composition  of  these  pages,  as  affording  the 
simplest  method  in  demonstrating  the  fre- 
quent relations  of  the  Parables  to  the  scenes 
and  surroundings  in  which  they  were  first 
delivered.  It  was  intended  to  dedicate  this 
volume  to  the  writer's  father,  the  Rev.  Will- 
iam McClure  Thomson,  D.D.,  author  of  "  The 
Land  and  the  Book,"  a  work  widely  known  to 
the  religious  public,  but  before  it  was  com- 
pleted he  was  called  this  year  to  his  rest. 


New  York,  7  Fifty-Sixth  St.  West 
December,  1894. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
THE   SOWER 1 

THE   SEED  GROWING   SECRETLY 43 

THE  TARES 49 

THE  DRAW-NET 73 

THE  MUSTARD-SEED 85 

TIIE   LEAVEN 101 

THE   HID   TREASURE 117 

THE  PEARL 133 

THE  householder's  TREASURE 145 

CONCLUSION 151 


THE  SOWER 


Matt,  xiii.,  1-23.     Mark  iv.,  1-25.     Luke  viii.,  4-18. 

Tlie  same  day  went  Jesus  out  of  tlie  Jiouse,  and  sat  by 
the  sea-side.  And  great  multitudes  icere  gathered  together 
unto  Mm,  so  that  he  went  into  a  ship,  and  sat ;  and  the 
whole  multitude  stood  on  the  shore.  And  he  spake  many 
things  unto  them  in  parables,  saying,  Behold,  a  sower 
went  forth  to  sow;  And  wh^n  he  sowed,  some  seeds  fell  by 
tJie  way-side,  and  the  fowls  came  and  devoured  them  up: 
Some  fell  upon  stony  places,  where  they  had  not  much 
earth:  and  forthwith  they  sprung  tip,  because  they  had  no 
deepness  of  earth :  And  when  the  sun  loas  uj)  [R.  V.  was 
risen],  they  were  scorched;  and  because  they  had  no  root, 
they  witliered  away.  And  some  fell  among  thorns ;  and 
the  iJiorns  sprung  iip,  and  choked  tliem :  (Mark.  Aiul 
other  fell  on  good  ground,  and  did  yield  fruit  that  spi'ang 
up  and  increased;  and  brought  forth,  some  thirty,  and 
some  sixty,  and  some  a  hundred.)  Who  hath  ears  to  hear, 
let  him  hear. 

And  the  disciples  came,  and  said  unto  him.  Why  speak- 
est  thou  unto  them  in  parahlesl  He  answered  and  said 
unto  them,  Because  it  is  given  unto  you  to  know  tlie  mys- 
teries of  tlie  kingdom  of  Jieaven,  but  to  them  it  is  not  given. 
For  whosoever  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall 
have  more  abundance:  but  whosoever  hath  not,  from  him 
shall  be  taken  aroay  even  that  he  Imth.  Therefore  speak  I 
to  them  in  parables:  because  they  seeing,  see  not;  and 
1 


heariiuf,  they  hear  not,  neither  do  they  uncle  rata  nd.     And 
unto  the/a  is  fulfilled  the  propJiccy  of  Imiah,  which  saith. 

By  lieariiuj  ye  nhall  fiear,  and  sJmll  in  no  wise 
understand  ; 

And  seeing  ye  shall  see,  and  shall  in  no  zcise  perceive  : 

For  this  j)eople's  heart  is  waxed  f/ross, 

And  their  ears  are  dull  of  hearing, 

And  their  eyes  they  have  closed; 

Lest  Imply  tli<]i  s/i  mi  Id  perceive  with  their  eyes, 

And  hear  irith  their  ears. 

And  understand  with  their  heart, 

And  should  turn  again. 

And  I  shoidd  heal  them, 
(Mark.  And  witJi  many  such  parables  spake  he  the  word 
unto  them,  as  they  were  able  to  hear  it.)  But  blessed  are 
your  eyes,  for  they  see :  and  your  ears,  for  they  hear.  For 
verily  I  say  unto  you.  That  many  prophets  and  righteous 
men  have  desired  to  see  those  tilings  wliieh  ye  see,  and 
luive  not  seen  them,  and  to  hear  those  things  which  ye 
hear,  and  have  not  heard  them. 

Hear  ye  therefore  the  parable  of  the  sower.  When  any 
one  henreth  the  word  of  the  kingdom,  and  undcri^tandeth  it 
not,  then  cometh  tlie  wicked  one,  and  catcluili  aicay  Had 
ichich  teas  sown  in  his  heart.  This  is  he  which  received 
seed  by  the  icay-side.  But  he  that  received  the  seed  into 
itony  2il<ices,  the  same  is  he  that  heareth  the  word,  and 
anon  with  joy  received  it;  Yet  hath  he  not  root  in  him- 
self, but  dureth  for  a  while:  for  ichen  tribulation  or  per- 
secution ariseth  because  of  the  word,  by  and  by  [1{.  V. 
straight ir((y]  he  is  offended.  He  also  that  received  seed 
among  the  thorns  is  he  that  heareth  the  word,  and  the 
care  of  this  world,  and  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  choke 
the  word,  and  he  becometh  unfruitful.  (Jlark.  And  the 
cares  of  this  world,  and  t/ie  deceitfulness  of  riches,  and  the 
lusts  of  other  things  entering  in,  choke  the  word,  and  it 
becometh  unfruitful.)  (Luke.  And  that  which  fell 
among  thorns  are  they  which,  iclicn  they  have  heard,  go 
forth,  and  are  choked  tcith  cares  and  riches  and  pleasures 
of  this  life,  and  bring  no  fruit  to  jxrfection.)  But  he 
that  received  seed  into  tlie  good  ground  is  he  that  heareth 
the  word,  and  understandeth  it ;  which  also  beareth  fruit, 
and  bringeth  forth,  some  a  hundredfold,  some  sixty,  some 
thirty.  (Luke.  But  that  on  the  goad  grofind  are  they, 
which  in  an  honest  and  good  heart,  haci)ig  heard  the  word, 
keep  it  [ii.  V.  hold  it  /«*<],  and  bring  forth  fruit  with 
patience. ) 


THE  SOWER 

There  is  a  form  of  deafness  known  to  phy- 
sicians in  whicli  the  person  affected  is  able  to 
hear  everything  except  words.  In  such  a  case 
the  ear,  as  an  apparatus  for  mere  hearing, 
may  be  so  perfect  that  the  tick  of  a  watch  or 
the  song  of  a  bird  is  readily  appreciated,  but 
owing  to  a  local  injury  deeper  than  the  ear, 
for  it  is  in  the  brain  itself,  all  spoken  words 
of  his  mother- tongue  are  as  unintelligible  to 
the  sufferer  as  those  of  a  foreign  language. 
Give  him  a  book,  and  he  may  read  as  under- 
standingly  as  ever,  but  every  word  addressed 
to  him  through  his  ear  reaches  his  conscious- 
ness only  as  a  sound,  not  as  a  word. 

There  is  a  moral  deafness  which  corresj)onds 
to  this  physical  infirmity,  but  which,  instead 
of  being  rare,  is  as  common  as  it  is  harmful 
and  disabling.  To  all  men  there  is  given  an 
inner  ear,  which  has  been  fashioned  to  hear 
wisdom's  words,  but  that  car  often  seems  so 


4       THE  PARABLES  AND  THEIR  HOME 

dull  of  hearing  that  there  appears  no  sign  of 
response  to  her  utterances.  Now  it  was  just 
such  an  unreceptive  state  of  soul  and  of  feel- 
ing in  the  people  which  we  are  told  led  Jesus 
to  speak  to  them  in  parables.  But  we  cannot 
appreciate  as  we  ought  either  the  parables 
themselves,  or  the  kind  wisdom  which  led 
Jesus  so  to  address  that  multitude  by  the  lake, 
unless  we  first  reproduce  as  faithfully  as  we 
can  the  human  field  on  which  the  Teacher 
■worked.  In  all  problems  of  life  the  study  of 
the  subject  of  environment  is  not  merely  in- 
structive, but  is  now  recognized  as  an  indis- 
pensable requisite;  and  in  no  case  is  this  bet- 
ter illustrated  than  in  the  mental  conditions 
with  which  our  Saviour  had  then  to  deal. 

Of  the  many  causes  of  moral  deafness,  there 
was  one  which  was  especially  operative  in  the 
first  hearers  of  the  parables,  and  that  is,  the 
interference  of  other  ideas  previously  lodged 
in  their  minds.  How  small,  therefore,  would 
be  the  echo  to  the  voice  of  spiritual  truth  in 
those  inner  chambers  whose  walls  were  hung 
thick  with  mistaken  traditions,  all  embellished 
with  the  decorations  of  Oriental  imagination, 


THE    SOWER  5 

may  be  judged  by  the  following  considera- 
tions : 

First,  the  multitude  gathered  to  hear  the 
"  word  of  the  kingdom  "  were  already  filled 
with  thoughts  instilled  from  childhood  about 
the  coming  king.  Any  expected  one  must 
by  so  much  be  an  ideal,  and  men's  ideals  are 
faithful  reproductions  of  themselves  in  their 
hopes  and  wishes.  Human  imagination  has 
no  power  to  make  pictures  out  of  new  ma- 
terials, and  hence  every  one  of  that  Galilean 
throng  brought  with  him  an  old  and  clearly 
defined  picture  of  the  promised  Messiah,  drawn 
in  every  detail  from  Eastern  life  and  manners. 
The  Messiah  was  to  be  a  king,  and  to  Orientals 
a  king,  first  of  all,  must  be  formidable.  To 
their  minds  he  would  not  be  a  king  at  all  if 
he  were  not  personally  dangerous  even  to 
friends.  In  the  whole  folk-lore  of  the  East 
the  kingly  idiom  is  ever  recognizable  by  its 
constant  allusion  to  liis  power  of  ready  slay- 
ing. Coupled  with  this  would  be  a  magnifi- 
cence of  state  and  of  imposing  retinue  in 
which,  for  variety  and  true  picturesqueness, 
the  people  of  western  Asia  have  excelled  all 


C  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

otlier  races.  Neither  Europeati  monarchs  nor 
Chinese  emperors,  owing  to  defects  in  cos- 
tume, have  ever  equalled  the  spectacular  ef- 
fects of  royal  processions  among  tlie  Shemitic 
peoples.  A  Jewish  Solomon  or  an  Arab  Ha- 
roun-al-Itaschid  could  ride  arrayed  and  adorned 
as  no  other  mode  of  dress  allows  for  both 
grace  and  splendor,  and  at  the  same  time  for 
suggesting  the  king's  immeasurable  elevation 
above  all  other  men.  I  have  seen  Arab  dig- 
nitaries  riding,  not  at  the  head  of,  but,  better, 
surrounded  by,  a  great  cavalcade  of  attend- 
ants, with  scarcely  two  of  them  arrayed  alike, 
and  yet  without  a  single  artistic  incongruity 
in  the  whole  company  to  mar  the  effect  or  to 
lessen  the  impression  of  the  scene ;  so  much 
does  the  Oriental  dress  allow  of  variety  with 
Iiarmony,  both  in  form  and  color.  We  may  be 
sure,  therefore,  that  of  the  thousands  at  the 
lake  that  day,  not  one,  from  the  rabbi  to  the 
peasant,  but  hoped  to  live  to  hail  the  Messi- 
ah's coming  in  just  such  outward  fuliilment  of 
the  prophetic  psalm,  "  Gird  thy  sword  upon 
thy  thigh,  O  Mighty  One !  And  in  thy  maj- 
esty ride  on  prosperously  "  (Psalm  xlv.  3,  4). 


THE   SOWER 


Hence  came  another  conception  inseparable 
from  such  an  ideaL  A  king  and  a  warrior 
are  words  anciently  coupled  everywhere,  fa- 
miliar enough  in  European  literature  itself  of 
but  a  century  ago.  But  no  nation  could  have 
longed  more  naturally  for  a  warrior  king  than 
the  Jews  of  that  day.  The  heroic  figure  of 
Judas  Maccabseus  rose  to  every  mind  as  a 
promise  of  the  mightier  Son  of  David  coming 
fitly  against  a  mightier  oppressor  than  Anti- 
ochus.  A  greater  than  Caesar  would  be  here. 
Whose  heart,  indeed,  would  not  burn,  even 
among  ourselves  now,  at  the  thought  of  the 
avenger  of  that  one  scene  alone,  though  there 
were  many  others  like  it,  which  but  a  few 
years  before  was  enacted  by  the  proconsul 
Yarns,  when  he  crucified  two  thousand  of  its 
chosen  youths  in  groups  at  all  the  cross-roads 
of  the  land  as  a  demonstration  of  what  Eome 
was  to  them  ? 

The  King,  indeed,  had  come,  but  how  could 
he  be  recognized  in  him  who  was  sitting  in  a 
poor  fisherman's  boat? — he  who  was  known  as 
a  carpenter  and  the  son  of  a  carpenter,  belong- 
ing, therefore,  to  the  poorest  craft  in  a  land 


8       THE  PARABLES  AND  THEIR  HOME 

where  carpenters  liave  less  to  do  than  in  any 
settled  country.  This  is  not  alone  from  the 
scarcity  and  poor  quality  of  its  lumber,  but 
because  in  their  stone  houses  the  people  Iiave 
little  need  for  carpenters  except  to  make  one 
rough  door  and  one  or  two  windows.  At  this 
day  one  maj'  admire  the  elegant  stone  archi- 
tecture of  the  houses  of  the  rich  in  Syrian  cit- 
ies, and  yet  note  in  them  the  cheap  rudeness 
of  all  carpenter -work.  But  though  his  own 
personality  miglit  not  have  been  disappoint- 
ing, the  same  could  not  be  said  of  his  body 
attendants.  Dress  among  Orientals  is  an  im- 
mediate and  unmistakable  mark  of  rank,  and 
even  of  intellectual  grade.  The  scribe  and 
tlie  rabbi  had  their  full-dress,  just  as  no  one 
now  mistakes  the  dignified  figure  of  the  Mos- 
lem nlem.  But  the  chosen  companions  of 
Jesus  belonged  to  the  only  class  in  the  coun- 
try below  dress,  as  they  were  so  commonly 
seen  at  their  daily  labor  without  it.  It  is  one 
of  those  conclusive  incidental  references  which 
stamp  as  genuine  the  last  written  words  of 
the  New  Testament,*  where,  though  by  that 
*  A  chronological  arrangement  of  the  New  Testament  ac- 


THE    SOWER 


time  Christians  liad  become  tbroughont  the 
world,  and  according  to  Tacitus  even  in  Rome 
itself,  "a  vast  multitude,"  and  were  found  in 
Caesar's  palace,  yet  John  does  not  shrink  from 
representing  Peter,  after  the  Ilesiirrection,  re- 
turning to  do  his  work  as  of  old,  naked.  (John 
xxi.  7.)  Neither  was  it  repellent  to  the  rich 
alone  that  Jesus  surrounded  himself  with  pa- 
riahs. The  peasants  of  Palestine  still  have  a 
pride  in  the  show  of  their  superiors,  and  would 
resent  the  promotion  from  their  own  ranks  of 
such  as  Salome's  two  sons,  who  looked  for- 
ward to  the  vizier's  seats  on  the  right  and  left 


cordinj^  to  the  date  of  composition  of  its  separate  books  would 
begin  with  the  First  Epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  and  would 
end  with  the  writings  of  St.  John,  who,  according  to  the  uni- 
versal tradition,  survived  its  other  authors.  The  general  opin- 
ion of  scholars  is  that  Revelation  was  written  some  twenty 
years  before  the  Fourth  Gospel,  and  from  the  time  of  Ter- 
tullian  chapter  xxi.  has  been  commonly  regarded  as  a  post- 
script to  the  Gospel,  which  otherwise  would  end  with  the 
29th  verse  of  chapter  xx.  It  is  supposed  that  the  21st  chap- 
ter was  added  by  the  apostle  to  correct  a  mistaken  report 
(vs.  23)  current  in  the  Cliristian  community  that  our  Lord 
had  said  that  John  should  not  die.  From  vs.  19  it  is  plain 
that  St.  Peter  was  already  dead. 


10  THE    PARABLES   AXD   THEIR   HOME 

hand  of  tlie  king  when  at  last  he  would  put 
off  his  disguise. 

That  such  were  the  conceptions  of  the  mul- 
titude, as  they  stood  waiting  to  hear  about  the 
kingdom,  we  know  from  the  apostles  them- 
selves. Whatever  else  the}'  were,  sincere  and 
good  men  they  show  that  they  were  by  their 
uniformly  humble  estimate  of  themselves.  In 
their  memoirs  of  their  Master,  out  of  some 
twenty-eight  allusions  to  something  which  they 
either  said  or  did,  twenty-six  are  to  their  dis- 
credit. Hence  they  tell  us  that  not  all  their 
close  personal  intercourse  with  Jesus  himself 
sufficed  to  displace  from  their  minds  their  na- 
tive ideal  of  the  Messiah's  advent.  "Whoever, 
therefore,  understands  human  nature,  can  dis- 
cern that  one  miracle  at  least  occurred  at 
Pentecost,  w^hen  those  same  men  so  suddenly 
showed  that  they  knew  at  last  what  the  King- 
dom of  the  Parables  truly  was.  Before  that  day 
not  even  the  mighty  impression  of  the  Resur- 
rection had  kept  them  from  asking,  "  Lord,  dost 
thou  at  this  time  restore  the  kingdom  to 
Israel'f  (Acts  i.  6) — a  most  natural  question 
in  the  world  in  their  then  mental  state,  while 


THE    SOWER  11 

it  impressively  illustrates  the  words  of  their 
Master  on  the  way  to  Gethsemane,  '■  I  have 
yet  many  things  to  say  nnto  you,  but  ye  can- 
not bear  them  now.  Howbeit  when  He,  the 
Spirit  of  Truth  is  come,  he  shall  guide  you 
into  all  the  truth  "  (John  xvii.  12,  13). 

Jesus,  therefore,  spoke  now  to  the  multitude 
in  parables  because  he  knew  what  was  in  men. 
Not  an  idea  from  outside  could  penetrate  the 
dense  thickets  of  their  mental  prepossessions, 
and  therefore  only  a  thought  working  from 
within  could  have  any  chance  of  a  recognition. 
That  a  parable  alone  could  accomplish.  For 
such  as  he  was  to  utter  a  parable  they  all 
knew  meant  much.  Not  only  by  his  own 
preaching,  but  by  that  of  John  the  Baptist, 
the  whole  nation  had  been  stirred  up  with  the 
announcement  that  the  kingdom  of  heaven  was 
at  band.  They  clearly  recognized  in  Jesus  a 
greater  than  a  rabbi,  even  a  great  prophet  at 
least,  and  great  prophets  were  wont  to  speak 
just  thus.  Simply  as  Orientals  they  could  ap- 
preciate a  speaker  in  parables,  for  Orientals 
are  rarely  orators.  Their  wise  men  do  not 
rise  to  speak,  but  rather  sit  and  deliver  their 


12      THE  PARABLES  AND  THEIR  HOME 

message  as  a  father  instructs  his  child.  A 
formal  prologue  or  an  eloquent  peroration  in 
such  case  would  be  wholly  out  of  place.  There- 
fore, soon  as  they  found  that  Jesus  was  speak- 
ing to  them  in  parables,  the  multitude  was 
awe-struck.  So  spake  the  seers  of  old  to  their 
fathers.  At  once  they  knew  that  the  responsi- 
bilit}'^  was  on  them  to  divine  what  he  meant 
about  the  kingdom.  A  late  distinguished  medi- 
cal teacher  (Sir  Andrew  Clark)  said,  "  The  cri- 
terion of  true  instruction  is  not  acquiring,  but 
thinking."  Judged  by  that  criterion,  the  wit- 
ness of  the  ages  is  that  never  man  spake  as  did 
Jesus  then  in  thought-awakening  words,  when 
he  spoke  to  them  in  parables. 

Some  commentators  have  strangely  mis- 
understood our  Lord's  answer  to  the  question 
of  the  disciples  why  he  spoke  thus  to  the  mul- 
titude, as  implying  that  it  was  to  conceal  his 
teaching  from  them  as  a  judicial  punishment 
for  the  state  of  mind  they  were  in,  while  pri- 
vately he  explained  the  truth  to  his  followers 
because  only  to.  them  was  the  privilege  vouch- 
safed of  entering  into  the  mysteries  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.    But  we  may  be  sure  that 


THE    SOWER  13 

Christ  never  chose  such  a  form  of  judgment 
for  sin,  and  that  he  who  said  at  this  time  "  there 
is  nothing  hid  that  shall  not  be  made  mani- 
fest" (Mark  iv.  22),  scarcely  would  himself 
form  a  secret  order  of  the  initiated  among 
men.  On  the  contrary,  our  Lord's  words,  il- 
lustrated by  the  apt  quotation  from  Isaiah, 
are  simply  descriptive  of  the  mental  state  of 
the  multitude,  a  state  which  precluded  any  ap- 
preciation of  spiritual  truth  by  them  in  com- 
parison with  his  more  enlightened  disciples. 
Hence  as  one  would  begin  to  teach  unlettered 
nomads  or  savages  how  to  read  by  pictures 
or  object-lessons,  so  Jesus  chose  the  parable, 
first,  to  fix  the  attention,  and  then  to  awaken 
inquiry  among  men,  dwelling  as  they  were  in 
the  thick  shadow  of  Galilean  darkness.  Much 
more  favored  are  those  who  can  learn  without 
pictures,  for  with  them  progress  in  knowledge 
is  both  easier  and  cumulative.  His  disciples, 
therefore,  could  begin  to  grasp  the  explana- 
tion of  the  parable  when  he  gave  it  to  them, 
while  the  man  of  the  multitude  knew  that  it. 
had  a  meaning  too  deep  for  him  then,  but  of- 
fered to  him  to  search  out  as  he  caught  the 


14  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

impressive  refrain,  "  He  who  hath  ears  to  hear, 
let  him  hear!"  This  fact  at  least  about  the 
parable  the  man  of  the  multitude  well  knew 
by  his  birth,  for  Orientals  peculiarly  appreciate 
metaiDliors,  and  expect  it  whenever  profound 
truths  are  the  theme  of  the  teacher. 

A  word  about  the  scene.  I  have  heard  of 
travellers  being  disappointed  with  their  first 
view  of  the  Lake  of  Tiberias,  but  I  have  al- 
waj'S  regarded  it  as  analogous  to  the  feelings 
of  many  persons  when  they  first  look  upon  a 
picture  by  one  of  the  old  masters.  One  needs 
to  look  upon  the  Sea  of  Galilee  often  and  long 
to  appreciate  its  singular  beauty.  Accustomed 
as  we  are,  Americans  especially,  to  heavily 
wooded  landscapes,  the  rocky,  treeless  moun- 
tains all  about  the  lake  except  where  separated 
from  it  by  the  bare  plain  of  Gennesaret,  seem 
a  picture  of  general  desolation.  Ere  long, 
however,  the  varied  features  of  steep  slopes, 
gorges,  precipices,  and  successive  bold  indenta- 
tions of  the  shores,  are  seen  to  form  a  splendid 
setting  for  the  deep  blue  waters  of  the  lake  it- 
self. But  as  the  sun  declines,  tints  of  so  many 
exquisite  hues  come  out  in  the  landscape  that 


THE    SOWEK  15 

the  eye  grows  bewildered  with  the  ceaseless 
variety  of  its  enjoyments.  Among  the  many 
visits  which  I  liave  made  to  the  lake,  there 
was  one  which  gave  ns  a  sudden  view  of  it  as 
we  emerged  from  the  long  valley  which  is 
given  in  Joshua  xix.  as  belonging  to  the  tribe 
of  I^aphtali.  We  had  followed  this  yet  olive- 
planted  vale  as  it  runs  east  from  the  plain  of 
Acre,  and  just  before  sunset  found  it  opening 
on  the  basin  of  Tiberias,  with  the  ruined  site 
of  Capernaum  far  below.  A  peculiarly  serene 
quiet  rested  upon  the  whole  scene,  every  line 
of  which  showed  through  the  transparent  air, 
from  the  flashing  snow  of  Ilermon  on  the  north 
to  the  exit  of  the  Jordan  on  the  south,  with 
mountain,  plain,  and  lake  bathed  in  colors 
which  sugo:ested  the  thouijht  that  John  drew 
from  his  native  memories  the  materials  for 
the  glorious  dream  of  the  jewelled  city  de- 
scending from  the  heaven. 

We  must  remember,  however,  that  in  our 
Saviour's  time  all  the  mountain -sides  were 
green  with  vineyard  terraces,  or  rose  in  steps 
for  thousands  of  feet  of  olive  orchards,  with 
villages   embowered  amons:  fior   and   almond 


16  THE   PARABLES   AND   THEIR    HOME 

trees  on  every  slope,  while  turreted  castles  and 
walled  cities  crowned  the  precipices  all  around 
the  lake.  Of  the  fertility  and  popnlonsness 
of  the  plain  of  Gennesaret,  Josephus  {Bell.  iii. 
10,  7)  gives  ns  a  glowing  account,  and  we  may 
be  sure  that  it  presented  a  picture  equal  to 
that  of  the  Damascus  plain  now,  with  here 
many  a  palm  grove  and  tropical  beauty  that 
would  make  the  contrast  of  the  whole  scene 
with  its  present  waste  as  marked  as  the  change 
would  be  to  the  most  beautiful  face  of  woman 
if  her  hair  were  completely  shorn. 

The  soil  of  Galilee  is  remarkable  for  its  pos- 
session of  a  guarantee  for  enduring  fertility  in 
the  nature  of  its  rock,  which  is  a  limestone  so 
abounding  in  shells  and  animal  remains  that 
its  disintegration  by  the  heavy  winter  rains  is 
constantly  re-enriching  it.  The  most  vigorous 
growth  of  wheat  may  therefore  be  seen  on 
land  which  at  first  sight  seems  covered  with 
stones.  A  field  in  America,  with  the  soil  in 
one  part  so  thin  over  rock  that  no  seed  can 
mature,  could  scarcely  promise  sixty  or  a  hun- 
dred fold  elsewhere  in  it.  But  not  so  here, 
where  the  heaviest  crops  are  gathered  from 


THE    SOWER  17 

immediate  proximity  to  bare  rock  itself.  As 
the  table-land  on  the  west  breaks  down  into 
the  volcanic  depression  of  the  Jordan  vallej, 
the  rich  lava  loam  is  mixed  with  the  washings 
of  the  limestone  hills,  with  the  effect  of  pro- 
ducing that  exceptional  fertility  of  which 
Josephns  so  proudly  speaks. 

The  first  winter  rains  cause  the  earth  to 
break  forth  into  a  wealth  of  flowers,  which 
continue  to  increase  until  in  spring  this  beau- 
teous coat  of  many  colors  completely  covers 
the  surface.  Their  variety  of  form  and  color 
also  baffles  description.  A  French  botanist, 
who  had  a  commission  from  the  Jardin  des 
Plantes  of  Paris,  told  me  that  after  five  years 
of  collecting  in  Syria  he  seemed  as  far  as  ever 
from  completing  his  work ;  and  that  though  he 
had  visited  Buenos  Ayres,  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope,  and  the  Moluccas,  yet  he  had  found  no 
land  which  could  compare  with  Syria  for  its 
flowers.  It  is  here  also  that  the  Huleh  lily, 
which  surpasses  in  loveliness  all  lilies  of  the 
field,  has  its  native  home.  One  has  but  to 
look  at  it  to  see  how  vain  it  would  be  for  man 
to  imitate  its  glory. 


18      THE  PARABLES  AND  TUEIR  HOME 

We  are  thus  brought  at  the  outset  to  one  of 
those  spiritual  parallels  in  the  life  of  man 
which  appear  with  such  inexplicable  natural- 
ness whenever  the  parables  make  us  think, 
that  we  seem  led  to  ask,  was  not  this  visible 
world,  after  all,  created  from  the  beginning  to 
be  man's  great  parable?  The  sower  went 
fortli  to  sow,  but  he  had  been  there  before ! 
He  does  not  begin  to  sow  until  after  he  has 
broken  the  ground  all  up.  But  how  many 
flowers  he  ruins  in  doing  this !  So  many  a 
man  and  woman  can  say  that  their  field  was 
once  filled  witli  nature's  fairest  attractions, 
until  the  Sower  came  and  buried  all,  not  ex- 
cepting, perhaps,  that  matchless  lily,  which  we 
would  think  he  could  have  spared.  Certainly 
at  first  nothing  could  seem  more  desolating 
work  than  his,  or  anything  less  likely  than  that 
the  field  will  ever  regain  its  former  jo3'ous 
face.  Even  when  it  will  best  answer  his  pur- 
pose, and  wave  with  his  seed-bearing  growth, 
it  will  not  then  appear  as  bright  as  when  it 
was  gay  with  its  former  robe.  Nevertheless, 
all  experience  tells  us  that  it  is  just  when  life 
seems  all  broken  up  by  upheavals  which  the 


THE    SOWEK  19 


man  neither  caused  nor  could  prevent,  and 
when  human  consolation,  therefore,  is  impo- 
tent, because  it  knows  not  what  to  say,  that 
the  human  heart  is  oftener  ready  to  receive 
the  seed  of  the  kingdom  than  ever  before. 

The  divisions  of  land  are  still  the  same  in 
Palestine  as  in  Bible  times.  No  fences  sepa- 
rate one  man's  field  from  another's,  the  division 
being  the  eye  line  between  tall  stones  erected 
as  landmarks.  In  comparison  with  our  stjffly 
enclosed  meadows,  this  much  enhances  the 
park-like  effect  of  a  plain  when  green  with 
wheat,  while  it  recalls  many  a  passage  of  the 
Old  Testament  against  the  wicked  who  re- 
move a  neighbor's  landmark,  a  form  of  rob- 
bery of  the  weak  by  the  strong  still  known  in 
this  country.  The  roads,  or  rather  the  bridle- 
paths which  go  for  roads,  are  so  narrow  as 
they  pass  through  the  fields  that  every  sower 
has  to  cast  some  of  the  seed  on  the  wayside 
for  the  fowls  of  the  air  to  pick  up.  Birds  in 
Syria,  and  especially  about  the  Lake  of  Ti- 
berias, are  extraordinarily  numerous.  Some 
twelve  miles  above  Tiberias  is  the  first  lake 
of  the  Jordan,  or  the  Waters  of  Merom  of  the 


20  THE    PARABLES   AND   THEIR    HOME 

Bible,  at  the  end  of  the  rich  plain  now  called 
the  Iluleh,  but  which  plain  becomes  a  vast 
marsh  ere  it  merges  into  that  lake.  As  Syria 
is  the  winter  feeding-ground  of  many  migra- 
tory birds  from  Northern  Europe  and  Asia, 
this  marsh  is  then  filled  with  a  greater  variety 
and  multitude  of  waterfowl  than  I  have  ever 
seen  elsewhere.  But  towards  evening  its  ex- 
tensive canebrakes  resound  with  the  noise  of 
myriads  of  crows,  which  come  from  all  quar- 
ters of  the  heavens  to  its  secure  resting-place. 
At  early  dawn  they  begin  their  calls  again, 
and  then  make  long  lines  of  flight  for  the 
nearest  wheat-fields.  As  once  we  were  de- 
scending to  the  plain  of  Gennesaret,  we  passed 
a  hill-side  which  was  black  with  over  a  thou- 
sand of  them,  who  were  waiting  there  for  the 
unhappy  ploughmen  to  move  far  enough  away 
for  them  to  descend  on  their  fields.  In  addi- 
tion to  the  crows,  there  are  great  flocks  also 
of  the  rock -pigeons  who  live  in  the  many 
precipices  above  the  lake.  As  I  tried  to  shoot 
some  of  them,  I  noticed  that  when  they  rose 
in  their  powerful  flight  they  never  stopped 
short  of  their  lofty  hiding-places  ere  they  lit, 


THE   SOWER  21 

though  in  a  short  time  they  would  swoop 
down  to  the  plain  again.  "  How  say  ye  to  my 
soul,  flee  as  a  bird  to  your  mountain,"  said 
the  psalmist. 

Modern  physiology  of  the  nervous  system 
has  its  lessons  about  the  application  of  this 
part  of  the  parable.  According  to  the  laws 
of  reflex  association,  it  is  plain  that  much  the 
greater  number  of  our  ideas  are  not  self-gen- 
erated at  all,  but  are  simple  reflex  responses 
to  the  impressions  coming  to  us  from  the 
outer  world  through  our  senses.  Our  brain 
is  a  thinking  machine  in  which  thoughts  arise 
in  response  to  every  variety  of  external  sug- 
gestion, and  in  numbers  as  countless  as  the 
birds  of  the  air  which  come  from  north,  south, 
east,  and  west  on  a  field  in  Gennesaret  to  catch 
away  the  seed  of  the  sower.  We  are  not  re- 
sponsible for  the  thoughts  which  enter  our 
minds.  No  man  ever  was.  What  we  are  re- 
sponsible for  is  for  the  thoughts  which  we 
allow  to  stay  there,  because  we  have  a  kingly 
centric  power  within  us  which  can  compel  this 
mechanically  thinking  brain  to  do  its  think- 
ing at  its  behest.      The  will,  by  its  lawful, 


22  THE    PARABLES   AND   THEIR    HOME 

physiological,  inhibitory  power,  can  say  to  the 
thinking  brain,  these  thouglits  are  good  and 
valuable  seed-thoughts,  therefore  keep  them ; 
those  thoughts  are  purposeless  and  hence  un- 
profitable, therefore  dismiss  them  at  once,  and 
a  well-disciplined  mind  will  obey.  Now  each 
step  in  the  parable  of  the  sower  is  from  the 
weaker  men  to  the  stronger.  The  weakest  of 
all  are  those  characterized  habitually  with  fly- 
ing thoughts.  It  is  a  feeble,  often  a  diseased, 
mind  whicli  thinks  hurriedly.  Let  a  man  be 
reduced  by  a  fever  or  other  cause  of  exhaust- 
ion, and  he  has  hard  work  to  keej)  his  mental 
machine  from  turning  out  thoughts  that  run  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth.  A  rapid  flow  of  ideas, 
indeed,  is  often  the  sign  of  impending  mental 
ruin,  as  in  the  approach  of  maniacal  insanity. 
Deep  thought,  on  the  other  hand,  implies  pro- 
longed thought,  and  no  mental  machine  can 
think  long  and  well  on  one  subject  unless  it 
has  learned  the  weary  lesson  of  thinking  by 
will.  But  in  the  ordinary  world  of  men,  how 
rare  is  the  man  who  has  that  most  precious  of 
all  possessions — self-possession,  so  that  he  can 
compel  his  mind  to  dismiss  its  many  birds  of 


THE    SOWER  23 

the  air  whenever  he  chooses.  Instead  of  that 
with  many  scarce  has  a  good  seed  -  thought 
time  to  fall  upon  their  uncultivated  soil  ere 
it  is  quickly  displaced  by  flitting  ideas  from 
the  farthest  horizon.  Our  Saviour  says  that 
Satan  comes  quickly  to  the  wayside  hearer 
and  catches  away  the  seed ;  but  Satan,  like  ev- 
ery other  spiritual  agency,  has  to  work  through 
our  natural  laws  of  mental  suggestion.  That 
he  can  best  do  by  promoting  mental  desulto- 
riness,  for  those  are  swayed  easiest  who  have 
the  least  control  over  their  own  thinking. 
For  seed  to  germinate  into  serious  or  settled 
purpose  it  must  have  more  time  than  the 
wayside  weakling  ever  gives  to  anything. 

The  shallow  soil  of  the  next  class  receives 
the  seed  long  enough  to  have  it  germinate, 
and  indeed  to  be  greener  than  the  rest  of  the 
field  for  a  time.  It  is  a  mistake,  however,  to 
confound  this  class  with  impulsive  characters 
in  general.  Persons  of  an  impulsive  tempera- 
ment are  often  so  on  account  of  a  naturally 
strong  warmth  of  feeling,  and  thus  they  may 
be  among  the  best  and  sweetest  persons  in 
the   world.     Their  many   mishaps,  however, 


24  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR    HOME 

often  cause  them  to  be  underrated,  as  inferior 
to  really  smaller  natures  Avith  cooler  heads. 
But  it  should  be  remembered  that  lie  who 
never  mistook  men,  froin  the  first  called  the 
impulsive  and  oft -stumbling  Peter,  the  Rock 
(John  i.  42). 

Tlie  stony -ground  hearers,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  that  numerous  class  who  in  any  new 
thing  see  only  its  favorable  aspects,  and  san- 
guinely  follow,  expecting  nothing  else.  But 
it  takes  a  deeper  nature  than  theirs  to  weigh 
the  difficulties  which  come  with  all  true  good 
in  life.  Hence  they  are  too  weak  in  soul  to 
encounter  difficulties,  and  with  the  first  expe- 
rience thereof,  as  Mark  expresses  it  (E..V.), 
"having  no  root  in  themselves,  straightway 
they  stumble  and  fall  before  it." 

No  part  of  the  parable  of  the  sower  de- 
rives so  much  illustration  from  the  land  in 
which  it  was  first  uttered  as  that  which  tells 
of  the  seed  and  the  thorns.  These  thorns  are 
not  brier-bushes  or  brambles  among  which  the 
seed  falls,  but  an  after-growth  of  a  variety  of 
thistles,  as  is  intimated  in  the  phrase,  "  the 
thorns  sprang  up  and  choked  it."    These  this- 


THE    SOWER  28 

ties  come  up  thickly  in  every  wheat -field  in 
Palestine,  but  the  natural  time  for  them  to 
appear  is  after  the  wheat  is  ripened.  When, 
therefore,  the  wheat  is  reaped  the  ground  is 
seen  covered  with  the  new  green  growth  of 
this  strong-leaved  thistle,  which  then  springs 
rapidly  up  to  about  the  same  height,  and  as 
dense,  as  the  wheat  which  preceded  it.  As  it 
dries  it  becomes  very  hard,  with  a  metallic 
ring  when  struck,  and  turns  white,  so  that  at 
a  distance  it  resembles  a  harvest -field  with 
grain,  and  thus  gives  point  to  the  words  of 
Jeremiah  (xii.  13),  "  They  have  sown  wheat, 
but  shall  reap  thorns" — a  very  painful  har- 
vest, for  the  spikes  on  the  thistles'  leaves  are 
both  long  and  sharp.  But  as  the  productive 
parts  of  a  field  in  Palestine  will  sooner  or 
later  be  covered  with  these  thorns,  the  lesson 
of  the  parable  is  not  that  Christians  will  es- 
cape thorny  days  by  rich  fruit-bearing.  Strong 
and  abundant  thistles,  on  the  contrary,  are 
signs  of  naturally  good  soil.  It  is  Christian 
to  be  diligent  in  business,  though  the  result 
be  increase  in  the  world's  goods,  with  conse- 
quent cares  and  responsibilities.     But  what  a 


26  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR   HOME 

sower  in  Palestine  knows  that  he  should  do 
is  to  get  his  seed  in  early.  If  he  sows  too 
late,  his  wheat  will  then  have  a  hard  contest 
with  the  inevitable  thorns  which  will  be  sure 
to  appear  in  their  time.  Sometimes,  however, 
late  sowing  in  Palestine  cannot  be  helped, 
because  the  "early  rain"  of  Scripture,  which 
ought  to  fall  in  the  last  week  of  September, 
has  been  delayed.  After  the  dry  season  which 
follows  the  "  latter  rain  "  in  May,  the  autumn 
showers  are  needful  to  soften  the  earth  enough 
for  the  Syrian  farmer,  with  his  rude  wooden 
plough,  to  break  the  soil  up.  When  this  rain 
is  missed,  the  peasants  are  often  obliged  to 
band  together,  so  that  a  number  of  them  may 
be  seen  following  each  other  in  the  same  fur- 
row to  make  it  deep  enough;  a  fact  which  ex- 
plains the  passage  in  1  Kings  xix.  19,  where, 
after  the  three  years'  drought,  Elijah  first  meets 
Elisha  ploughing  with  twelve  yoke  of  oxen, 
EHsha  being  with  the  twelfth.  With  such 
slow  ploughing,  however,  parts  of  the  field 
are  sown  much  earlier  than  other  parts ;  the 
last,  therefore,  having  a  future  before  it  of,  at 
best,  mixed  wheat  and  thistles. 


THE    SOWEK  27 

This  portion  of  the  parable,  therefore,  ad- 
verts to  the  grave  spiritual  dangers  of  middle 
life.  Get  the  heavenly  seed  in  early ;  for  if 
it  be  first  received  in  the  time  that  the  cares 
of  this  life  are  multiplying,  it  is  the  nature  of 
these  to  grow,  after  they  start,  much  faster 
than  wheat  ever  does.  This  world's  posses- 
sions, when  won,  can  be  kept  only  by  being 
constantly  watched ;  but  the  men  are  few  who 
can  be  deeply  interested  at  the  same  time 
with  quite  diverse  objects.  Gradually  the 
earlier  and  better  seed  languishes  and  de- 
clines, while  a  change  of  interest  unconscious- 
ly goes  on,  which  is  daily  ministered  to  by 
family,  friends,  and  associates.  I  have  seen 
some  good  stalks  of  wheat  which  have  man- 
aged to  hold  their  own  against  the  crowd  of 
thistles  all  around  them ;  but  in  the  field  of 
life,  those  who  would  approach  Christians  in 
such  case  are  apt  to  feel  the  prick  of  the 
thorns  sooner  than  they  can  recognize  the 
Sower's  fruit,  so  hedged  in  are  they  likely  to 
be  with  the  hard  exclusiveness  of  worldly 
prosperity.  The  usual  result,  however,  of  a 
life  filled  with  this  world's  interests  is  that 


28      THE  PARABLES  AND  THEIR  UOME 

nothing  is  grown  for  the  future.  A  seed  of 
wheat,  though  the  product  of  this  season,  yet 
contains  assurance  of  next  year's  growth.  If 
it  stopped  short  of  that  it  would  not  be  fruit. 
So  Christian  fruit  will  be  shown  to  be  fruit 
for  the  next  world  when  the  angels  gather  the 
harvest.  They,  no  more  than  earthly  reapers, 
will  take  the  seed  which  has  no  germ  for  the 
future,  because  it  has  spent  itself  here. 

The  deceptive  resemblance  at  a  distance  of 
a  thistle-covered  field  to  one  of  good  grain  has 
its  counterpart  in  many  a  showy  but  utterly 
barren,  if  not  cruel,  growth  of  modern  civil- 
ization. The  passion  for  mere  material  suc- 
cess is  the  snare  of  our  time,  which  threatens 
to  dwarf  every  kind  of  good  seed  in  literature 
and  art  as  well  as  in  religion,  for  the  deceit- 
fulness  of  richness  may  delude  an  age  quite  as 
certainly  as  an  individual.  With  an  individ- 
ual, however,  it  is  pitiable  to  see  how  all  the 
world  combines  to  deceive  the  rich  man  about 
himself  by  its  show  of  deference  to  his  every 
word,  as  if  he  gave  the  weight  to  his  gold 
instead  of  his  gold  to  him.  The  effect  of  this 
misinterpreted  verdict  of  his  fellows  is  to  en- 


THE    SOWER  29 

gender  in  tlie  man  that  most  complete  of  all  de- 
ceptions, the  self-deception  of  the  self-satisfied. 

Also,  in  the  Church  at  large,  there  often 
come  times  of  spiritual  drought,  when  the 
whole  field  seems  overrun  with  earth's  this- 
tles. The  oft-given  promise  of  the  Old  Tes- 
tament, "  I  will  pour  out  my  Spirit  upon  you," 
suggested  to  Palestinians  the  anxiously  hoped 
for  "  early  rain,"  which  enables  the  sower  to 
go  forth  to  sow  as  soon  as  the  long  summer 
drought  is  broken.  So  when  in  the  Church 
these  gracious  seasons  are  much  delayed,  we 
need  not  be  surprised  at  the  marked  growth 
of  worldliness,  with  its  painful  thorns,  when 
only  the  bread  of  life  should  be  found. 

It  is,  however,  at  the  parable's  closing  words 
about  the  seed  which  fell  on  good  ground  that 
our  Lord  sought  to  have  each  ear  fully  awak- 
ened to  hear.  Instead  of  those  failures  whose 
sadness  will  be  fully  known  only  when  the 
kingdom  is  come  in  heaven,  we  have  now  the 
conditions  of  that  success  which  will  be  the 
joy  of  the  Great  Harvest.  lie  explained  that 
the  fruit-yielding  hearers  are  those  who  both 
"  receive  "  the  word  into  their  hearts  and  then 


30  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR    HOME 

"  keep "  it  there.  To  receive  here  means  to 
appreciate,  and  appreciation  is  a  weighty  word ! 
It  testifies  to  a  power  of  estimating  vahies  or 
aims  in  life  which  is  possible  only  to  a  richly 
endowed  being  like  man.  Often  the  posses- 
sion of  this  jDower,  or  the  lack  of  it,  at  a  par- 
ticular juncture,  determines  a  man's  destiny 
thereafter.  How  generally,  from  the  lack  of 
it,  does  sin  itself  come,  because  rarely  does  one 
commit  a  sin  with  any  appreciation  at  the  time 
of  what  he  is  doing.  Likewise  opportunities 
lost  are  simply  opportunities  not  appreciated. 
Wisdom  itself  may  be  defined  as  the  timely 
appreciation  of  the  relative  importance  of 
things,  and  acting  accordingly.  Hence  wis- 
dom is  always  selective,  but  on  that  very 
account  implies  the  possession  of  strength, 
for  amid  the  many  attractions  in  human  life 
it  takes  a  strong  nature  so  to  appreciate  the 
better  thoughts  when  they  come  that  they 
will  be  kept  until  they  take  deep  root,  a  re- 
sult which  can  follow  only  upon  much  and 
prolonged  effort,  or,  as  the  revised  version  ex- 
presses it  (Luke  viii.  15),  they  "hold  it  fast 
and  bring  forth  fruit  with  patience." 


THE    SOWER  31 

Unlike  most  physical  or  chemical  processes, 
growth  requires  much  time,  and  good  seed  es- 
pecially must  be  long  retained  and  carefully 
cultivated.  Hence  the  failures  with  the  pre- 
ceding classes  were  that  each  in  its  own  way 
failed  to  "  keep  "  what  the  sower  gave.  The 
wayside  hearer  never  began  to  appreciate  it ; 
both  the  other  two  received,  but  failed  to 
keep,  thus  showing  that  good  thoughts  should 
be  reverted  to  again  and  again,  or  they  will 
die  out.  Scarcely  any  figure,  therefore,  could 
describe  so  aptly  as  this  parable  does  the  com- 
mon human  experience  with  good  thoughts. 
We  all  have  our  times  when  good  thoughts 
come  into  our  minds  as  seed  falls  gently  from 
a  sower's  hand.  Often  their  excellence  is  then 
recognized,  and  we  feel  that  a  good  moment 
is  upon  us,  with  suggestions  of  a  better  life  to 
be  begun  by  us  anew.  Yet  how  soon  we  find 
the  appreciation  of  them  grow  less  and  less, 
until  finally  the  thoughts  themselves  die  out ! 
But  we  should  remember  that  no  good  thoughts 
ever  make  us  better  until  they  have  become 
habitual.  Only  when  they  have  become  that 
have  they  taken  root,  for  thoughts  influence 


82  THE    PARABLES   AND   THEIR   HOME 

life  and  conduct  not  by  their  impressiveness, 
but  by  their  permanence. 

But  scarcely  any  one  can  look  over  his  men- 
tal field  without  finding  it  occupied  with  many 
an  old  mental  weed  M'hich  has  for  long  been 
exhausting  its  soil.  Tiie  decision  must  then 
be  made  whetlier  the  good  seed,  which  can  al- 
ways be  had  of  the  Heavenly  Sower  for  the 
asking,  shall  be  not  only  sown,  but  then  care- 
fully attended  to.  If  it  be  so  kept,  the  weeds 
will  be  killed  out,  for  the  two  are  mutually 
exclusive  of  each  other.  The  longer  the  good 
seed  grows  the  stronger  it  grows,  according 
to  the  law  of  verse  12,  "  Whosoever  hath,  to 
him  it  shall  be  given,  and  he  shall  have  abun- 
dance." The  power  of  appreciating  the  rela- 
tive worth  of  things  grows  with  its  exercise. 
Good  thoughts  already  retained  make  the  re- 
tention of  others  like  them  easier.  More  and 
more  seed  then  will  be  sown  in  time,  for  it  is 
only  over  poor  ground  that  the  sower  passes 
but  once,  while  he  returns  again  and  again  to 
the  more  promising  soil  to  make  sure  that  it 
gets  its  full  share. 

While  some  may  not  agree  with  Buffon  that 


THE    SOWER  33 

genius  is  patience,  yet  none  will  deny  that  true 
patience  always  implies  strength  of  character. 
It  is  far  from  being  mere  endurance.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  a  patient  ox ;  for,  though 
animals  may  be  passive  at  labor,  they  cannot 
be  patient,  because  patience  demands  a  pur- 
posive as  well  as  continuous  self  -  restraint. 
Therefore,  instead  of  being  a  passive  quality, 
its  exercise  calls  for  activity  of  the  highest  or- 
der. It  needs  power  to  maintain  that  mastery 
which  will  prevent  strength  from  being  wasted 
by  yielding  to  impulses  and  inclinations.  It 
is  instructive,  therefore,  to  note  how  physiology 
abounds  with  illustrations  of  the  place  which 
the  great  law  of  control  has  in  all  sentient  life. 
Thus  the  heart  is  supplied  with  two  opposing 
sets  of  nerves.  If  one  be  stimulated  by  an 
electrical  current  it  causes  the  heart  to  beat 
rapidly.  Stimulation  of  the  other  filament 
causes  the  heart  to  beat  slowly.  Kow  if  this 
latter  nerve  be  cut,  the  heart  at  once  bounds  off 
into  a  tumultuous  rapid  action,  behaving  like 
a  horse  which  has  thrown  his  rider.  Through- 
out the  nervous  system,  indeed,  we  have  con- 
stant examples  of  similar  restraining  arrange- 


84  THE    PARABLES    AND    TIIEIK    HOME 

ments  of  nerves  and  of  nerve-centres  which 
arc  technically  said  to  "inhibit"  the  action  of 
other  nerves  or  nerve-centres,  and  the  view  is 
now  held  that  this  inhibiting  function  is  for 
the  special  purpose  of  conserving  and  of  reg- 
ulating energy.  That  man  has  a  strong  lieart 
whose  pulse  remains  steady  when  evil  tidings 
suddenly  come ;  while  he  whose  heart  beats 
violently  at  a  small  provocation  not  only  has 
his  cardiac  inhibiting  nerve  weak,  but  he  is 
likely  to  be  weak  throughout,  from  lack  of 
that  reserve  power  without  which  no  one  can 
be  patient.  Therefore  as,  in  the  material  liv- 
ing world,  fruit-bearing  is  not  only  the  slowest 
and  the  last  product  of  growth,  but  also  that 
which  makes  the  greatest  demand  on  vitality, 
so,  in  the  moral  world,  none  but  the  strong  in 
spirit  do  so  "  possess  their  souls  in  patience  " 
that  they  fail  not  in  the  long,  silent  process  of 
bringing  forth  fruit  to  perfection. 

In  this  parable,  while  the  soil  corresponds 
to  the  human,  the  seed  corresponds  to  the 
Divine  element  in  the  sowing,  Now  it  is  in 
a  seed  that  the  whole  mystery  of  life  on  earth 
is  enwrapped.     This  mystery  modern  science 


THE    SOWER  35 

has  intensified  far  beyond  what  men  in  the  age 
of  the  parables  could  have  imagined.  Then 
men  thought  that  what  they  saw  in  a  seed  of 
wheat,  or  in  an  acorn,  was  the  first  beginning 
of  the  great  after-growth.  We  now  know  that 
the  actually  living  part  of  such  seeds  is  won- 
derfully smaller,  and,  in  fact,  at  first  is  to  the 
unaided  eye  invisibly  hid  in  the  mass  of  the 
apparent  seed,  for  this  consists  mainly  of  a 
store  of  food  for  the  true  seed  within  when  it 
shall  begin  to  grow.  It  is,  therefore,  at  a  seed 
that  all  who  attempt  materialistic  explanations 
of  life  find  themselves  baffled.  Every  living 
thing,  be  it  an  oak  or  a  whale,  has  to  begin  its 
individual  existence  as  a  unicellular  organism, 
a  microscopic  speck.  To  the  biologist,  there- 
fore, it  is  a  much  greater  thing  when  it  exists 
as  a  vanishing-point  of  matter,  than  when  it 
has  attained  to  the  vast  bulk  of  mature  devel- 
opment, for  by  that  time  it  has  outgrown  and 
spent  many  of  the  potencies  which  were  in  it 
at  the  beginning.  In  that  small  beginning  not 
only  was  every  after-development  already  de- 
termined to  a  finality,  but  it  also  contained  the 
stored -up  inheritance  of  untold  generations. 


86  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

It  is  in  view  of  such  facts  that  one  of  the  chief 
physical  pliilosophers  of  our  day,  Lord  Kelvin, 
says,  "  The  growth  of  generation  after  gen- 
eration of  plants  from  a  single  seed  is  infi- 
nitely different  from  any  possible  results  of 
the  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms.  The  real 
phenomena  of  life  infinitely  transcend  human 
science."  * 

So  we  may  say  of  the  seed  of  the  Word  of 
the  Kingdom,  there  is  in  it  a  mystery  which 
the  world  constantlj''  fails  to  recognize.  Con- 
stantly it  mistakes  Christ  the  Sower  as  only 
a  great  teacher  of  morals,  or,  as  technically 
termed,  ethics.  But  Christ  did  not  come  to 
teach  ethics.  The  world  did  not  need  hira 
for  that.  The  world  was  not  then,  nor  has  it 
ever  been,  in  want  of  men  who  could  say  all 
that  need  be  said  about  morals,  that  is,  about 
how  men  should  behave  to  each  other.  Egyp- 
tian epitaphs  show  that  for  more  than  thirty 
centuries  before  Christ  men  had  very  clear 
ideas  about  good  behavior.     In  Christ's  time, 

*  Sir  William  Thomson,  now  Lord  Kelvin,  President  of  the 
Koyal  Society.  Article  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  March, 
1892. 


THE    SOWER  37 

also,  the  writings  of  Jewish  rabbis  and  of 
Greek  and  Roman  philosophers  did  abound 
with  unexceptionable  ethics,  and  yet  their 
world  was  perishing  from  soul  starvation  all 
the  same.  Seneca,  the  wealthy  and  cultivated 
Roman,  wrote  a  book  of  moral  maxims  which 
is  admired  for  its  excellence  to  this  day ;  but 
of  the  effects  of  his  teaching  he  gave  the 
world  two  instructive  illustrations :  first  in 
his  favorite  pupil  JSTero,  and  secondly  in  him- 
self, when,  notwithstanding  all  his  ethics,  he 
shocked  even  Rome  by  rising  in  the  Senate 
to  justify  the  revolting  murder  by  J^Tero  of 
his  own  mother. 

No ;  there  is  a  fundamental  difference  be- 
tween the  seed  of  the  parable  and  ethics. 
Ethics  speaks  only  of  a  perfected  earthly 
life;  a  life,  therefore,  which,  however  ethical, 
must  end,  like  any  other  earthly  life,  in  death. 
Christ  here  tells  of  life  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven.  I^ow,  ethics  is  no  more  religion  than 
geometry  is  astronomy.  It  is  true  that  we 
must  begin  with  accurate  geometry  before  we 
can  begin  to  estimate  the  relations  to  us  in 
space  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  so  righteous- 


38  THK    PARABLES   AND   THEIR    HOME 

ness  in  our  earthly  lives  is  an  indispensable 
prerequisite  for  the  life  beyond.  But  mere 
ethics  is  as  much  restricted  to  this  life  as 
mere  geometry,  or  earth  measuring,  is  to  this 
earth.  Therefore,  to  regard  the  sower  of  this 
parable  as  only  another  teacher  of  old  ethics, 
is  as  mistaken  as  the  view  that  a  seed  of  wheat 
consists  only  of  certain  physical  substances 
which  are  nutritious  ;  but  were  it  not  for  the 
living  thing  within  it,  the  seed  would  not  con- 
tain one  of  those  life  -  sustaining  principles. 
It  is  true  that  the  world  as  naturally  demands 
that  the  Christian  should  be  an  example  of 
good  morals,  as  that  wheat  should  be  good 
for  food.  There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  Chris- 
tian life  without  good  deeds,  any  more  than  a 
living  germ  of  wheat  without  its  rich  enwrap- 
ping. The  one  form  of  life  can  no  more  begin 
to  grow  without  its  essential  accompaniment 
than  the  other.  But  the  true  Christian  receives 
from  the  Prince  of  Life  much  more  than  good 
morals — nothing  less  than  the  gift  of  life  in 
distinction  from  death.  What,  in  fact,  can 
mere  ethics  do  against  death  ?  Will  moral 
discourse,  for  example,  bind  up  the  broken 


THE    SOWER  39 

heart  after  the  entrance  of  death  into  one's 
house  ?  Death  is  wliolly  impartial  on  all  ques- 
tions about  morals  :  the  good  and  the  evil 
die  alike.  How,  therefore,  can  ethics  console 
human  grief  on  account  of  death?  It  is  in 
the  tidings  about  the  kingdom  alone  that  we 
hear  an3^thing  worth  hearing  about  death  and 
life.  Christ  is  our  life  from  now  on,  because 
he  has  changed  death  into  sleep,  which  there- 
fore has  an  awakening,  when  he  shall  bring 
us  back  to  our  Father,  to  see  God  face  to 
face.  He  who  has  this  hope  will  seek,  in- 
deed, to  purify  himself  as  his  heart  is  stirred 
within  him  by  an  incentive  which  no  mere 
ethics,  with  its  earthly  limitations,  could  ever 
supply. 

No  one  can  conclude  his  meditations  on  the 
lessons  of  this  parable  without  becoming  sen- 
sible of  a  certain  peculiar  elevation  in  it  above 
human  ideals,  for  which  there  is  no  explana- 
tion on  natural  or  historical  principles.  His 
auditors  were  eager  above  everything  else  to 
hear  about  the  kingdom,  and  Jesus  likens  it 
to  what  no  one,  either  before  or  after,  likened 
a  kingdom — to  seed  growing  in  some  Individ- 


40      THE  TARABLES  AND  THEIR  HOME 

ual  liearts  until  it  bears  fruit  there  of  its  own 
beavenly  kind.  But  we  need  not  wonder  that 
such  a  conception  would  hardly  suggest  to 
that  Jewish  multitude  a  reference  to  the 
kingdom  of  their  expected  Son  of  David. 
This  lesson  was  equally  lost  ujDon  men  who 
were  not  Jews,  for  we  find  it  still  far  above 
Christian  thought  for  many  centuries  after- 
wards. Strictly  parallel  to  the  Jewish  idea 
of  the  Israel  of  God,  there  arose  among  Chris- 
tians the  conception  of  the  Church  of  God 
as  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth.  But  no 
sooner  did  the  Church  win  the  sword  of  the 
Cfesars,  as  the  Jews  had  hoped  that  the  Mes- 
siah would  do  for  them,  than  all  thought  of 
the  kingdom  as  a  source  of  life  in  the  heart 
gave  place  to  the  old  ante-Pentecostal  dreams 
of  James  and  John  and  Salome.  To  the  minds 
of  such  good  men  as  St.  Augustine  and  St,  Je- 
rome the  earthly  king  was  to  be  the  Church's 
king  also.  Augustine  urged  Count  Boniface 
to  hang  and  every  way  to  persecute  the  Dona- 
tists,  saying  of  the  text,  "  Blessed  are  ye  who 
suffer  for  righteousness'  sake,"  that  they  are 
equally  blessed  who  inflict  persecution  for  the 


TUE    SOWER  41 

sake  of  righteousness !  Jerome  in  similar  vein 
said,  "  Cruelty  in  God's  cause  is  not  impiety !" 
Such  misconceptions  of  the  kingdom  not  only 
silenced  the  Gospel  to  unconverted  nations  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years,  but  filled  Chris- 
tendom itself  with  blood,  and  rent  the  body 
of  Christ  into  many  hostile  divisions.  Against 
fatal  perversions  like  these  there  can  be  no 
better  corrective  than  to  revert  to  this  first 
Word  of  the  Kingdom,  which  speaks  of  its 
being  a  silent  inner  principle  of  life  direct 
from  the  hand  of  the  Lord  from  heaven,  and 
which,  in  contrast  with  the  thoughts  of  men, 
is  like  passing  from  the  desolate  shores  of  the 
Dead  Sea  and  its  bitter  waters,  to  the  sweet 
scenes  of  the  peaceful  Lake  of  Galilee. 


THE   SEED   GROWING  SECRETLY 


Mark  iv.,  26-29. 

And  he  said,  So  is  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  if  a  man 
should  cad  seed  into  the  ground;  And  should  sleep,  and 
rise  night  and  day,  and  the  seed  should  spring  and  grmo 
up.  Tie  knoweth  not  Iww.  For  tlie  earth  bringeth  forth 
fruit  of  herself ;  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  after  that  the 
full  corn  in  the  ear.  But  when  the  fruit  is  brought  forth, 
immediately  Tie  puttetTi  in  tTie  sickle,  because  tTie  Tiarvest  is 
come. 


THE  SEED  GROWING  SECRETLY 

Anothek  association  by  our  Lord  of  the 
kingdom  with  the  life  in  a  seed  is  given  by 
St.  Mark  (iv,  26-29)  as  following  upon  the 
parable  of  the  sower,  in  the  words,  "  And  he 
said,  So  is  the  kingdom  of  God,  as  if  a  man 
should  cast  seed  into  the  ground ;  and  should 
sleep,  and  rise  night  and  day,  and  the  seed 
should  spring  and  grow  up,  he  knoweth  not 
how.  For  the  earth  bringeth  forth  fruit  of 
herself;  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  after 
that  the  full  corn  in  the  ear.  But  when  the 
fruit  is  brought  forth,  immediately  he  putteth 
in  the  sickle,  because  the  harvest  is  come." 

The  main  instruction  of  this  passage  is  that 
the  kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  obser- 
vation, because  it  is  essentially  a  life  within, 
and  life's  manifestations  can  only  be  seen,  not 
known.  Thus,  as  we  have  already  noted,  all 
the  watchful  observation  and  experiment  of 
modern  science  have  failed  to  find  the  slight- 


4G  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

est  explanation  of  what  the  life  in  a  seed  is. 
Still  it  grows,  while  no  man  knoweth  either 
how  it  begins  to  grow,  or  how  it  grows  from 
the  blade  to  the  ear,  and  then  on  till  it  is  ready 
for  the  sickle.  In  like  manner  the  kingdom 
has  appeared  in  the  story  of  the  world  and  in 
the  experience  of  individuals.  The  philoso- 
phy of  history  is  a  sounding  term,  applied  to 
attempts  to  trace  the  laws  and  the  causes  of 
historical  developments  according  to  certain 
natural  principles.  Climate,  geographical  po- 
sition, race,  customs,  institutions,  and,  finally, 
events  and  persons,  are  thus  supposed  both  to 
make  and  to  explain  history.  But  the  Church 
of  Christ  in  history  refuses  to  be  explained 
by  any  or  by  all  of  these  things,  for  time 
shows  that  she  has  been  wholly  independent 
of  them.  While  in  secular  history  the  suc- 
cessive steps  may  be  observed,  just  as  in  the 
erection  of  a  building  we  can  watch  each 
stone  as  it  is  added  to  the  rest,  the  story  of 
the  Church  is  that  of  a  living  growth  which 
develops  by  the  hidden  power  within  itself 
operating  unceasingly  day  and  night.  Each 
age,  as  it  has  been  occupied  with  its  own  pass- 


THE    SEED    GROWING    SECRETLY  47 

ing  concerns,  has  been  as  little  conscious  of 
the  silent  progress  of  the  kingdom  as  the  hus- 
bandman is  able  to  note  by  the  honi^how  his 
grain  is  growing.  But  as  we  look  back  over 
the  centuries,  and  see  through  how  many  dif- 
ferent phases  of  inner  conflict  and  of  external 
danger  the  Church  of  Christ  has  passed,  and 
has  left  them  all  behind,  we  may  well  say  that 
the  "how"  of  that  marvellous  continuity 
through  so  many  changes  we  know  not.  What 
■we  can  see  is  that  it  means  life. 

This  parable  was  given  for  our  encourage- 
ment as  well  as  for  our  instruction.  The  de- 
pression of  many  Christians  in  face  of  the  op- 
posing forces  of  their  times,  or  on  account  of 
what  they  imagine  to  be  the  slow  progress  of 
the  kingdom  in  the  world,  is  largely  due  to 
the  difficulty  of  watching  a  living  growth  at 
all.  Growth  often  goes  on  even  more  rapidly 
in  the  silent  night  than  by  day.  The  times 
of  one  generation  as  little  suffice  to  measure 
the  advance  of  the  kingdom  as  the  hours  of 
one  day  suffice  to  show  how  rapidly  the  crop 
is  growing  which  takes  a  whole  season  to  ma- 
ture.    On  some  cold  and  overcast  days  it  may 


48  THE    TAEABLES    AND   THEIR    HOME 

appear  scarcely  to  grow  at  all.  So  it  seeriied 
througliont  Christendom  at  the  close  of  the 
last  century.  But  the  seed  still  lives  through 
cold  and  dark  days,  and  in  due  time  it  will 
yield  its  golden  harvest. 

With  many  individual  Christians  also  the 
subject  of  their  spiritual  growth  is  too  often 
one  of  anxiety,  because  they  cannot  recognize 
its  daily  increase.  The  best  cure  for  tliis  mor- 
bid introspection  is  for  the  man  to  go  about 
his  Master's  business,  as  the  man  in  the  para- 
ble did  about  his,  and  let  the  seed  alone,  for 
he  cannot  tell  either  how  it  grows  or  when  it 
is  growing  most.  To  be  constantly  inspect- 
ino;  the  seed  to  discover  whether  it  be  takinor 
deep  root  or  not,  is  as  poor  husbandry  in  the 
spiritual  as  in  the  material  field.  He  who 
gave  the  seed  at  the  beginning  is  not  only  the 
Author,  but  the  Finisher  of  our  faith. 


THE  TAKES 


Matt,  xiii.,  24-30 ;  36-43. 

Another  parable  put  he  forth  unto  them,  mying.  The 
kinf/dom  ofheaeen  is  likened  unto  d  man  icliich  ko wed  good 
seed  in  hin  field :  But  while  men  slept,  his  enemy  came  and 
sowed  tares  [ii.  V.  also']  among  the  xcheat^  and  went  his 
way.  But  when  the  blade  was  sprung  up,  and  brought 
forth  fruit,  tlien  appeared  the  tares  also.  So  the  servants 
of  the  householder  came  and  said  imto  him.  Sir,  didst  not 
thou  sow  good  seed  in  thy  field?  from  whence  then  hath  it 
tares?  lie  said  unto  them,  An  enemy  hath  done  this. 
The  servant  said  unto  him.  Wilt  thou  then  that  we  go  and 
gather  them  up?  But  he  said.  Nay  ;  lest  while  ye  gather 
up  the  tares,  ye  root  up  also  the  wheat  icith  them.  Let 
both  grow  together  imtil  the  harvest;  and  in  the  time  of 
harvest  I  will  say  to  the  reapers.  Gather  ye  together  first 
the  tares,  and  bind  them  in  bundles  to  burn  them:  but 
gather  the  wheat  into  my  barn. 

Tlien  Jesus  sent  the  multitude  aicay,  and  went  into  the 
house :  and  his  disciples  came  unto  him,  saying.  Declare 
unto  us  the  parable  of  the  tares  of  the  field.  lie  answered 
and  said  unto  them.  He  that  soweth  Vie  good  seed  is  the  Son 
of  man  ;  The  field  is  the  icorld  ;  the  good  seed  are  the  chil- 
dren of  the  kingdom;  but,  the  tares  are  the  children  of  the 
icicked  one  ;  The  enemy  that  sowed  them  is  the  devil ;  the 
harvest  is  the  end  of  the  world;  and  the  reapers  are  the 
angels.  As  therefore  the  tares  are  gathered  and  burned  in 
tliefire  ;  so  shall  it  be  in  the  end  of  litis  world.  The  Son 
of  man.  shall  send  forth  his  angels,  and  they  shall  gather 
out  of  his  kingdom  all  things  tJuit  offend,  and  them  wliieh 
do  i)tiquity  ;  And  shall  cast  them  into  a  furnace  of  fire : 
there  shall  be  wailing  and  gnashing  of  teeth.  Then  shall 
the  righteous  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom  of  their 
Father.     Who  hath  ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear. 


THE  TARES 

Fully  as  familiar  to  the  people's  ears  as  the 
mention  of  a  sower  going"  forth  to  sow,  would 
be  the  reference  to. the  tares  of  the  field.  So 
well  did  they  know  jnst  what  tares  are  for 
trouble,  annoyance,  and  injury,  that  to  hear  of 
something  parallel  to  them  as  inseparably  as- 
sociated with  their  expected  kingdom  must 
have  bewildered  them  with  surprise  and  disap- 
pointment. They  could  not  possibly  give  a 
pleasant  interpretation  to  such  a  presage  of  the 
future,  nor  could  they  minimize  its  unwelcome 
import.  When  the  wheat  first  clothes  the  field 
with  its  green  mantle,  there  is  little  to  suggest 
to  the  Palestinian  farmer  any  fear  that  his  toil 
will  fail  of  the  reward  of  a  good  harvest.  The 
mildew  and  the  insect  enemies  which  so  com- 
monl}'  ruin  wheat  in  America  are  there  com- 
paratively rare,  and  he  simply  prays  that  the 
"latter  rain"  will  fall  in  its  due  season  to  bring 
out  the  ears  of  wheat  to  their  rich,  full  size. 


52  THE    PARABLES   AXD    THEIR   HOME 

But  as  the  time  for  the  heading  out  of  the 
wheat  approaches,  he  watches  anxiously  to  see 
whether  a  disguised  enemy  has  not  been  all 
along  growing  in  the  midst  of  the  wheat,  un- 
perceived  on  account  of  a  close  resemblance 
to  it  whilst  in  the  blade.  By  the  fruit  he 
soon  recognizes  whether  this  be  so  or  not. 
There  can  be  no  mistake  then.  As  once  I 
heard  it  remarked  in  that  country,  "  the  ears 
which  God  has  blessed  bow  their  heads,  but 
these  accursed  tares  stick  theirs  above  the 
whole  field  !"  For  the  tare  then  carries  a  tall 
light  head  of  small  dark  grains  which  in  every 
respect  contrast  with  the  weighty  golden  ear 
of  the  good  seed.  To  try  to  weed  them  out 
is  impracticable  from  the  treading  down  of 
the  wheat  and  the  uprooting  of  the  precious 
seed-bearers  in  the  attempt.  Both  must  be 
left  together  and  reaped  and  threshed  togeth- 
er. Then -comes  the  necessary  separation.  For 
the  ultimate  use  of  the  good  seed  for  bread, 
all  the  tare  grains  must  be  carefully  picked 
out,  because  they  are  poisonous.  Flour  of 
mixed  wheat  and  tares  cannot  be  given  even 
to  animals.     Hence  all  the  baskets  of  wheat 


THE    TARES  53 

are  carried  from  the  threshing-floor  to  the 
flat  roofs  of  their  houses,  where  they  are  emp- 
tied out  on  mats,  and  tlie  tedious  separation 
of  grain  from  grain  is  carried  on,  sometimes 
for  days,  until  the  wheat  is  finally  rid  of  this 
unhappy  admixture.  In  the  rainless  summer 
months  of  that  country  the  house-tops,  which 
are  reached  by  a  flight  of  steps  from  the  out- 
side, are  in  constant  use  for  this  purpose,  as 
well  as  for  drying  their  figs,  raisins,  etc., 
which  fact  explains  the  passage  in  Matthew 
xxiv.  17,  where  he  who  happens  to  be  on  his 
house-top  at  the  time  is  enjoined  from  com- 
ing down  to  take  anything  from  his  house. 
On  one  occasion,  after  an  early  start  from  a 
village  in  Mount  Ilermon,  I  felt  a  dizzy  head- 
ache coming  on  which  made  me  uncertain  on 
my  liorse.  My  two  Arab  companions  soon 
complained  of  the  same  trouble,  till  one  of 
them  said  that  he  knew  by  experience  what 
the  matter  was.  "  The  women  of  that  vil- 
lage where  we  got  our  bread  this  morning 
were  too  lazy  to  get  all  the  zotoan  [tares]  out 
of  the  wheat.  May  their  days  be  shortened  !" 
The  tare  grain,  in  fact,  is  in  Palestine  both  a 


54  THE    I'ARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

narcotic  and  an  emetic,  and  much  more  active 
in  these  properties  than  its  congener,  the  dar- 
nel of  Europe.  It  is  not  a  degenerated  kind 
of  wheat,  as  both  the  natives  and  many  com- 
mentators, both  ancient  and  modern,  have 
imagined,  but  a  distinct  species,  wliich  has  no 
original  relationship  to  wheat  or  barley. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  the  disciples  asked  to 
have  this  parable  explained.  To  their  dismay  it 
opened  up  the  prospect  of  an  injury  to  befall 
the  cominor  kincrdom  at  its  very  becjinninaf. 
and  which  would  last  to  the  end.  Men's  ideals 
take  no  account  of  imperfections,  but  here,  in 
equal  participation  of  the  field,  were  to  be  the 
good  and  the  radically  bad,  not  in  mere  pro- 
pinquity or  juxtaposition,  but  so  closely  re- 
lated that  no  remedy  was  to  be  tried.  For 
the  command  was  not  to  let  them  he  together, 
but  a  very  different  matter,  to  let  them  groio 
together.  We  may  well  ask  whether  a  more 
inextricable  condition  of  things  could  be  im- 
agined. But  however  much  it  perplexed  the 
apostles  then,  no  one  now  can  deny  that  its 
representation  of  our  human  world  is  in  exact 
keeping  with  undeniable  fact.     Human  story 


THE    TABES  55 

is  but  one  long  illustration  of  the  strangely 
intimate  relations  in  this  world  of  its  wheat 
and  of  its  tares.  How  often  do  we  wonder 
that  so  many  good  men  have  identified  them- 
selves with  the  worst  institutions  of  history  ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  wherever  in  any  age 
or  country  a  conflict  has  raged  between  good 
and  evil,  there  have  been  reprobates  in  plenty 
among  the  adherents  of  the  better  cause. 

More  than  one  purpose  of  Satan  has  thus 
been  accomplished.  The  first  is  thereby  to 
cast  discredit  on  the  whole  body  of  Christ's 
people.  So  the  saints  of  the  Old  Testament 
are  often  held  up  to  scorn  because  they  did 
not  grow  up  in  tlie  field  of  the  nineteenth 
Christian  century.  But  this  aspersion  ignores 
altogether  the  intertwining  conditions  of  life 
at  its  very  roots,  and  therefore  what  it  is  to 
grow,  as  well  as  to  be,  in  this  world. 

The  second  result  is  to  give  color  to  the 
assertions  of  a  false  liberalism.  We  are  told 
that  good  men  are  to  be  found  the  world 
over,  w^iether  among  Mohammedans,  Hindus, 
Buddhists,  or  Confucians.  The  excellent  of 
the  earth  are  not  monopolized  by  one  religion. 


56  THE    TARABLES   AND   TUEIR    HOME 

Hence  men  can  be  good  without  being  Chris- 
tians ;  why  then  should  Christianity  advance 
sucli  exchisive  claims  ?  Then  again  w'e  arc 
reminded  how  nuicli  true  devotion  and  feel- 
ing after  God  have  been  discovered  the  world 
over  by  the  great  modern  science  of  Compar- 
ative Religion. 

To  all  such  utterances  this  parable  gives  a 
stern  and  startling  answer.  The  field  it  speaks 
of  is  the  world.  Not  Christian  lands,  but  ev- 
ery land.  Not  Christian  ages  or  times,  but 
every  age  and  time.  Everywhere,  therefore, 
and  always,  there  are  and  have  been  good 
men  and  bad,  but  these  are  so  different  orig- 
inally from  each  other  that  the  end  will  dem- 
onstrate just  the  reverse  of  the  secret  wish  of 
many,  that  the  two  kinds,  after  all,  came  from 
the  hand  of  the  same  Sower.  Hence  the 
terms  often  used  in  both  philosophical  and 
religious  discussion  about  evil  this  parable 
stamps  as  much  too  abstract  and  impersonal. 
Intellectual  abstractions  are  too  far  away  from 
the  heart  to  awaken  either  love  or  feai*.  In- 
stead of  abstractions,  instead  of  sin  entering 
our  world  as  a  deadly  miasm  or  gas,  or  even  as 


THE    TAKES  57 

a  general  principle,  the  parable  of  the  tares 
pronounces  it  to  be  wholly  personal  in  its  ori- 
gin and  in  all  its  manifestations.  It  never  ex- 
ists except  as  embodied  in  sinful  beings,  and 
therefore  the  good  seed  and  the  tares  are  the 
living  men  and  women  as  contrasted  in  their 
native  instincts,  to  whom  alone  reference  is 
made. 

But  it  is  in  this  world  only  that  the  good 
and  the  evil  can  grow  together.  When  the 
day  of  the  world's  harvest  shall  come,  the 
essential  distinction  between  the  two  will  be 
made  manifest,  and  a  final,  because  necessary, 
separation  will  then  take  place.  Without  such 
separation  the  whole  intent  of  the  sowing  of 
the  good  seed  would  be  frustrated.  This  sep- 
aration, however,  cannot  be  committed  either 
to  earthly  judgments  or  to  earthly  hands. 
The  Son  of  Man  reserves  to  himself  both  the 
time  and  the  agents  for  its  accomplishment. 

With  our  Lord's  explicit  interpretation  that 
the  "field"  of  this  parable  is  "the  world,"  no 
exegesis  can  properly  explain  the  field  to  be 
exclusively  the  Church.  Such  a  misinter- 
pretation, however,  has  been  very  common, 


58      THE  PAKAULKS  AND  THEIR  HOME 

which  nuiintains  that  by  the  tares  is  prophe- 
sied the  entrance,  with  its  consequent  evils, 
of  worldly  men  into  the  fold  and  enclosure 
of  the  Church.  Notwithstanding  the  wit- 
ness of  such  lives  as  that  of  Socrates  the 
Athenian  or  Timoleon  the  Corinthian,  this 
view  assumes  that  the  world  is  Satan's  Held, 
with  nothing  in  it  but  tares,  and  that  Christ 
came  to  prepare  a  new  field  in  Satan's  king- 
dom for  good  seed  onlj',  but  in  doing  so  he 
foresaw  that  the  outside  tares  were  destined 
to  invade  it.  In  that  case  the  terms  of  the 
parable  should  be  reversed.  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  should  be  likened  to  a  man  who,  in  a 
liidden  wa}',  sowed  good  seed  in  the  field  of 
his  enemy,  who  cultivated  only  tares,  intend- 
ing thereby  that  the  good  seed  should  ulti- 
mately kill  out  the  tares.  Now  while  such  a 
parable  would  make  an  awkward  figure,  its 
principle  is  true  enough,  for  it  is  just  the  les- 
son of  the  parable  of  the  leaven,  which  fore- 
tells the  effect  on  the  world  of  that  kingdom 
which  should  begin  as  leaven  hid  in  three 
measures  of  meal.  But  the  aspects  of  truth 
which  these  two  parables  respectively  illus- 


THE    TARES  59 

trate  are  very  different.  That  of  the  leaven 
contemplates  the  transforming,  yet  silent,  in- 
ner working  upon  our  historical  world  of  the 
principle  of  life  which  Christ  brought  with 
him,  and  which  has  continued  thus  to  work 
from  the  day  of  the  apostles  on.  The  parable 
of  the  tares,  on  the  other  hand,  precedes  the 
parable  of  the  leaven  both  in  time  and  place. 
It  closes  with  the  Son  of  Man  as  Judge  at 
the  last  day ;  it  begins  with  his  original  rela- 
tion to  the  human  world,  when  "all  things 
were  created  through  Christ,  and  unto  Christ, 
and  he  is  before  all  things,  and  in  him  all 
things  hold  together"  (Col.  i.  16,  17).  That 
relation  to  every  human  being  has  never  been 
without  its  witness,  for  "he  was  the  true 
Light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world  "  (John  i.  9).  Therefore,  as  the 
beginning  of  this  parable  antedates  the  earth- 
ly history  of  man,  so  its  end  is  after  that  his- 
tory's consummation.  Only  then  will  the 
choice  of  the  elect  be  justified,  when  the  deep 
shadows  of  this  world  will  be  dispelled  in  the 
light  of  the  kingdom  of  the  Father.  But  as 
it  is  not  given  to  us  to  know  how  the  Serpent 


60  THE    PARABLES    AXD    THEIR    HOME 

could,  and  did,  enter  the  garden  which  tlie 
Lord  God  planted  in  Eden,  neither  is  it  given 
us  here  to  know  how  Satan  came  to  enter  the 
field  which  the  Son  of  Man  prepared.  The 
few  words,  "  while  men  slept,"  refer  to  a  night 
utterly  impenetrable  to  our  minds  now,  and 
whose  darkness  it  is  useless  for  us  to  attempt 
to  dispel.  These  words  of  the  second  Adam 
were  not  intended  to  clear  up  the  obscurity, 
in  this  respect,  of  the  story  of  the  first  Adam. 
Moreover,  as  all  history  down  to  Christ's 
day  but  illustrates  the  mournful  truth  of  the 
Fall,  so  does  all  history  after  Christ  find  its 
completest  epitome  in  the  parable  of  the  tares. 
Never  has  there  been  a  fresh  beo^innino^  for 
better  things  in  this  world  without  its  afford- 
ing new  opportunities  of  its  own  making  for 
the  growth  of  tares.  Hence  have  come  the 
sad  disappointments  of  many  reformers,  who, 
while  rejoicing  at  the  doing  away  of  old  fcvils, 
as  if  every  evil  would  then  cease,  have  quite 
forgotten  how  men  with  selfish  instincts  would 
find  this  newly  prepared  field  good  for  them 
also.  Thus  we  can  imagine  how  the  heroes 
of  liberty   in  English   or  American  history 


THE    TARES  61 

would  be  dismayed  if  they  could  return  now 
to  the  scenes  of  their  labors.  In  view  of  the 
rank  growth  of  abuses  in  our  legislative  and 
municipal  affairs,  how  natural  it  would  be  for 
them  to  pxclaim,  "  Did  we  not  sow  good  seed  in 
this  field?  From  whence  then  hath  it  tares?" 
Likewise  in  Church  history  nothing  was  more 
natural  than  the  beginning  of  monasticism. 
The  world  was  then  everywhere  both  danger- 
ous and  hateful,  nor  was  it  as  easy  then  as  now 
to  breathe  its  tainted  air  and  still  live  a  pure 
Christian  life.  For  a  man  in  those  days  to 
retire  to  the  healthy  solitude  of  the  desert,  in 
such  a  climate  as  that  of  Egypt,  was  as  much 
a  gain  to  his  soul  as  it  was  to  his  body  to  leave 
the  pestilential  streets  of  the  city.  But  as 
time  went  on,  every  one  of  the  many  attempts 
to  reform  monasticism  by  beginning  over 
again  with  a  new  order  only  repeated  the 
same  experience  of  adding  another  variety 
of  tares  to  be  called  after  the  pious  founder's 
name. 

It  is,  however,  incontestably  true  that  in  no 
other  part  of  the  great  field  of  the  world  would 
the  admixture  of  the  wheat  with  tares  be  so 


C2  THE    TARAHLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

exemplified  as  in  the  history  of  the  Clmrch. 
From  the  first  the  Churcli  was  not  allowed  to 
regard  a  part  of  the  field  as  hers,  about  whicli, 
therefore,  she  could  erect  lier  own  enclosure. 
Nothing  less  than  the  whole  field  was  her 
right,  and  hence,  in  obedience  to  her  native 
instinct,  she  Avent  forth  to  occupy  the  world. 
But  no  sooner  did  the  world  perceive  that  she 
bid  fair  to  do  so,  than  the  world,  by  its  native 
instinct,  proceeded  to  occupy  the  Church.  It 
was  not  alone  a  corrupt  Roman  world  which 
was  then  admitted,  but  soon  afterwards  a  thor- 
oughly barbarized  one,  by  the  so-called  con- 
version of  whole  races  of  savages  who  "  em- 
braced" Christianit}',  often  at  the  summary 
command  of  their  military  leaders.  A  greater 
contrast  scarcely  could  be  imagined  than  that 
between  the  converts  described  in  the  Acts 
and  the  converts  of  that  great  orthodox  cham- 
pion of  the  sixth  century,  the  Frankish  king 
Clovis.  Nor  were  he  and  his  fellow-converts 
different  in  type  from  the  rest  of  our  European 
ancestry.  Christendom  at  present  comes  by 
lineal  descent,  not  from  Peter  and  Paul,  but 
mainly  from  Constantine,  Charlemagne,  Saxon 


THE    TAKES  63 

kings,  and  Norman  chieftains.  And  yet  when, 
or  by  what  earthly  wisdom,  could  this  great 
historical  admixture  have  been  prevented  ? 
Who  was  to  blame  for  it? 

Soon,  however,  the  baleful  influence  of 
the  children  of  the  world  began  to  be  felt, 
and  in  no  respect  was  this  more  signally 
developed  than  in  the  rise  of  the  doctrine 
that  the  Church  is  a  field  by  itself,  with 
its  definite  bounds,  which  as  by  a  pale — ill- 
omened  word ! — could  both  include  and  ex- 
clude. One  "pale"  after  another,  therefore, 
has  been  erected,  without  in  any  case  prevent- 
ing the  tares  from  growing  as  abundantly  as 
ever  within,  while  much  precious  seed  has  re- 
mained outside.  It  has  been  this  old  snare  of 
a  separate  and  ideal  church  without  tares  which 
has  prompted  so  many  good  but  grievously 
mistaken  men  to  disobey  the  Master's  warning 
not  to  attempt  to  pull  up  the  tares  on  account 
of  the  danger  to  the  ffood  seed.  Our  Lord  in 
Matt.  XXV.  37  represents  the  last  day  as  a  day 
of  great  surprises  in  recognition,  and  surely 
one  of  them  will  be  when  saintly  persecutors 
and  saintly  persecuted  will  then  discover  how 


64  THE    PAKABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

this  blinding  world  prevented  them  from  see- 
ing Christ  in  each  other. 

Since  the  era  of  the  Reformation,  however, 
this  disobedience  of  the  Master's  injunction 
about  the  tares  has  assumed,  M'ith  n)any,  a  dif- 
ferent form,  though  in  practice  it  is  virtually 
the  same  as  the  other,  namely,  that  of  trans- 
planting the  good  seed  into  a  more  or  less 
small  enclosure  of  their  own  preparing.  Judg- 
ing also  from  the  little  but  I'igid  bounds  which 
some  have  thus  chosen,  it  would  appear  as  if 
they  would  fain  pot  the  heavenly  seed  !  But 
as  botanists  assure  us  that  the  North  American 
continent  now  abounds  with  European  weeds 
which  colonists  unwittingly  introduced  with 
the  grains  which  they  brought  with  them,  so 
the  universality  of  the  law  of  the  spiritual 
tares  has  never  escaped  illustration  in  the  liis- 
tory  of  our  religious  sects,  from  the  largest  to 
the  smallest  of  them. 

As  naturally  might  be  expected,  this  pro- 
found parable  has  excited  much  coji trovers}'. 
Archbishop  Trench  remarks  that  over  the 
words  "  the  field  is  the  world  "  a  "  great  battle 
has  been  fought,  greater,  perhaps,  than  over 


THE    TAKES  65 

any  single  phrase  in  Scripture,  if  wo  except 
the  consecrating  words  of  the  holy  euchar- 
ist."  From  the  disputes  of  Augustine  with 
the  Donatists  down  to  our  own  day  this 
text  has  been  appealed  to  against  separat- 
ists from  the  body  of  the  Church,  as  con- 
demning all  who  leave  her  communion  be- 
cause it  contains  either  ungodly  men  or 
those  who  teach  errors  of  doctrine.  So  this 
text  does,  as  far  as  its  words  go ;  but  it  is  cu- 
rious to  note  how  the  risk  of  depending  on 
mere  texts  is  illustrated  here  by  the  fact  that 
they  who  use  it  for  tliis  purpose  invariably 
garble  the  text  itself  in  order  to  have  it  sup- 
port their  contention.  They  always  quote  the 
text  as  if  the  term  "  world  "  in  it  means,  not 
the  world,  but  the  Church.  Now  if  our  Lord 
had  said,  the  field  is  the  kingdom  of  God 
on  earth,  then  not  only  the  Donatists,  but 
the  major  part  of  Christendom,  would  be  in 
much  perplexity  whether  they  are  now  in  the 
kingdom  or  not.  Who  is  to  decide  between 
the  ancient  orthodox  Eastern  Church,  the  Ro- 
man Catholic,  the  Anglican,  and  the  other 
Protestant  communions  as  to  which  holds  the 

5 


66  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR    HOME 

"field"?  The  decision  cannot  be  by  a  compar- 
ison as  to  which  "  pale "  has  the  most  tares, 
for  each  has  its  share  of  them,  but  which  has 
the  most  to  show  of  good  seed.  This  test  seems 
to  be  the  last  one  thought  of  by  these  contro- 
versialists, who,  instead,  appeal  rather  to  the 
antiquity  of  date  in  the  erection  of  their  re- 
spective enclosures. 

Other  discussions  have  arisen  whether  by 
the  good  seed  and  the  tares  we  are  to  infer 
that  there  is  such  a  generic  difference  between 
men  originally  that  neither  kind  could  ever 
become  the  other.  Our  Lord  himself  has  illus- 
trated his  doctrine  about  the  relationship  of  Sa- 
tan to  men  in  this  world,  as  far  as  he  saw  fit  for 
us  to  go.  To  men  who  boasted  of  their  descent 
from  Abraham  (which  he  did  not  dispute), 
but  who  were  then  planning  to  murder  him, 
he  said :  "  Ye  are  of  your  father  the  devil,  and 
the  lusts  of  your  father  it  is  your  will  to  do. 
He  was  a  murderer  from  the  beginning" 
(John  viii.  44).  In  contrast  with  men  of  such 
instincts  we  read  that  to  those  who  receive 
Christ  "  gave  he  the  right  to  them  to  become 
children  of  God,  to  be  born  not  of  blood  [de- 


THE    TARES  67 

scent],  nor  of  the  will  of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the 
will  of  man,  but  of  God"  (John  i.  12,  13). 
In  each  case  a  close  relationship  througli  a 
deep  communion  of  spirit  is  asserted,  which 
truth  is  all  that  concerns  us  now  to  know. 

We  may  remark  here  that  many  of  the  di- 
vergencies in  exposition  of  the  parables  have 
arisen  from  attempts  to  use  them  in  polemics, 
as  if  doctrinal  formularies  could  be  derived 
from  them.  Isolated  texts  from  the  parables 
thus  were  made  often  to  do  duty  in  the  con- 
struction of  Church  dogmas,  or  for  decid- 
ing Church  controversies,  with  the  result,  of 
course,  that  every  part,  or  even  word,  in  the 
parable  had  to  have  its  definite  setting,  as 
plainly  indicated  as  if  it  were  a  stone  in  a  per- 
fect arch.  But  the  fact  should  be  emphasized 
that  the  parables,  from  their  very  nature,  were 
intended,  not  to  define  truth,  but  to  illustrate 
it,  and  an  illustration  never  can  be  made  sy- 
nonjnnous  with  a  proposition.  Indeed,  one 
might  as  well  try  to  represent  an  apple-tree 
in  beauteous  blossom  by  drawing  a  diagram 
of  it,  as  to  show  how  one  or  other  phrase  in  a 
parable  corresponds  to  the  articles  of  a  creed. 


68      THE  PARA.BLBS  AND  THEIR  HOME 

The  parables  are  stories  of  life  from  fall  day- 
light, not  theses  from  lamplit  desks.  In  a 
contract  it  is  needful  that  the  precise  meaning 
of  each  important  word  should  be  settled  care- 
fully, and  creeds  often,  very  proper]}',  do  duty 
as  contracts  when  any  one  solemnly  accepts 
them  in  public,  or  subscribes  to  them  on  as- 
suming the  duties  of  an  office.  In  this  world 
of  deceptions  creeds  are  as  necessary  as  any 
other  binding  engagements,  and  in  the  Gos- 
pels and  Epistles  there  are  all  the  requisite 
elements  for  making  them,  but  not  in  the 
parables.  As  illustrations  of  God's  truth  the 
parables  are  invaluable,  because  they  are  so 
replete  with  life  that  their  suggestiveness 
often  is  both  more  and  deeper  than  we  can 
safely  attempt  to  formulate  in  set  theological 
terras.  Thus  the  part  which  Satan  takes  in 
this  parable  strongly  suggests  that  man's  story, 
as  wo  know  it,  is  not  a  beginning,  but  a  link 
in  the  story  of  the  intelligent  universe.  But 
no  statement  of  the  kind  would  be  in  place 
in  any  Christian  creed. 

"We  do  not  imply  by  these  remarks  a  dis- 
paragement of  creeds.     On  the  contrary,  a 


THE    TARES  69 

creed  holds  the  sanie  relation  to  a  religion 
that  obtains  between  the  Iniman  body  and  its 
bony  framework.  On  the  perfection  of  the 
skeleton  depends  the  effectiveness  of  the  whole 
voluntary  motor  system  of  mnscles,  whilst  the 
most  living  element  of  the  blood,  the  red  cells, 
owe  their  origin  and  constant  renewal  to  the 
marrow  of  the  bones.  It  is  only  with  the 
simplest  organisms  that  no  skeleton  is  needed, 
because  they  can  move,  secrete,  and  digest 
equally  well  in  every  part.  So  he  who  can 
adapt  himself  to  all  doctrines,  and  share  his 
sympathies  impartially  between  Christians, 
spiritualists,  agnostics,  or  atheists,  is  but  an 
intellectual  polyp,  who  suffers  no  more  incon- 
venience from  dividing  sentiments  in  his  soul 
than  a  polyp  does  when  his  body  is  cut  up. 
Instead  of  dividing  the  Church,  its  future  re- 
union is  to  come  by  creed,  when  the  whole 
Church  adequately  appreciates  the  great  fact 
that  on  the  doctrines  about  the  person  of 
Christ  there  is  even  now  but  one  Christian 
creed. 

In  conclusion,  we  may  say  that,  as  with  all 
our  Lord's  parables,  the  parable  of  the  tares 


70  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

contains  its  own  special  and  great  practical 
lesson,  but  meant  in  this  case  for  Christians 
rather  than  for  men  of  the  world.  A  Divine 
patience,  so  to  speak,  is  enjoined  upon  men 
on  account  of  their  fellow-men.  The  good 
and  the  evil  are  not  found  here  as  genuine 
and  counterfeit  coins  may  be  heaped  together. 
If  that  were  so  the  services  to  the  Church  of 
heresy  experts  or  specialists  in  orthodoxy 
would  be  of  great  value.  But  the  good  seed 
and  the  tares  are  contemplated  as  growing  to- 
gether, not  only  in  community  of  blood  or 
race,  but  even,  it  may  be,  in  the  same  family 
household.  No  more  touching  scene  of  love 
and  affection  can  be  found  described  than  that 
of  the  parting  of  Paul  with  his  weeping  friends 
of  Ephesus  (Acts  xx.).  Yet  even  then  the 
teaching  of  this  parable  came  to  his  mind,  as 
he  said,  "I  know  that  from  among  your  own 
selves  shall  men  arise,  speaking  perverse 
things  to  draw  away  the  disciples  after  them." 
If  with  such  a  teacher  as  Paul,  and  in  those 
days  when  there  was  comparatively  so  little 
temptation  for  worldly  men  to  enter  the 
Church,  nevertheless  the  tares  were  already 


THE  TAKES  11 

taking  root  along  with  the  good  seed,  how  can 
we  expect  to  be  free  from  perverse  men  in 
the  Church  now?  That  they  should  be  re- 
buked and  warned  against  is  as  much  a  Chris- 
tian duty  now  as  ever,  but  both  this  parable 
and  the  verdict  of  history  is  against  the  divid- 
ing of  the  Church  on  their  account.  The 
evangelical  branches  of  the  Church  especially 
have  had  more  than  enough  of  these  ruinous 
uprootings  in  the  past.  Wiser  would  it  be  to 
accept  the  simple  thought  of  the  Syrian  peas- 
ants, who  to  this  day  believe  that  tares  can 
best  be  kept  down  by  nourishing  to  the  ut- 
most the  life  of  the  good  seed. 


THE  DKAW-NET 


Matt,  xiii.,  47-50. 
Again,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  a  net,^  that 
was  cast  into  the  sea,  and  gathered  of  every  kind:  V/hich, 
when  it  icasfull,  they  dreio  to  shore,  and  sat  doicn,  and 
gathered  the  good  into  vessels,  but  cast  the  bad  away.  So 
shall  it  be  at  the  end  of  the  world  ;  the  angels  shall  come 
forth,  and  sever  the  icickedfrom  among  the  just,  And  shall 
cast  them  into  the  furnace  of  fire :  there  sluill  be  wailing 
and  gnashing  of  teeth. 


THE  DRAW-NET 

Saida,  the  present  successor  of  the  ancient 
city  of  Sidon,  the  Zidon  of  the  times  of  Jacob 
(Gen.  xlix.  13),  is  beautifully  situated  on  a 
point  which,  jutting  out  from  the  general 
trend  of  the  sea-shore,  forms  on  the  north 
a  gently  curved  beach  some  three  miles  in 
length  and  about  two  hundred  yards  in  width, 
where  it  meets  the  hedge  line  of  the  orange 
gardens  for  which  the  town  is  famous.  Dur- 
ing five  pleasantly  spent  years  in  that  city  I 
would  often  time  my  evening  walk  so  as  to 
watch  the  fishermen  draw  their  nets,  about 
sundown,  upon  that  stretch  of  soft  sand.  Be- 
fore my  first  experience  of  the  kind,  I  was 
not  at  all  prepared  for  the  large  scale  on 
which  this  work  is  done,  nor  for  the  immense 
size  of  the  nets.  At  early  dawn  a  fleet  of 
boats  may  be  seen  close  to  a  long  line  of  huge 
floating  corks,  extending  far  out  upon  the 
glassy  surface  of  the  sea.     The  vast  net,  in 


76  THE    PARABLES   AND   TUEIK    HOME 

fact,  is  dropped  down  ere  the  stars  fade,  and 
as  the  day  wears  on  one  end  is  brought  to 
land  by  some  of  the  boats,  while  the  other  is 
slowly  swung  round  in  a  great  sweep  by  the 
united  tow  of  the  others,  and  not  till  the  close 
of  a  hard  day's  toil  do  the  two  ends  approach 
each  other,  and  the  fishermen  turn  to  and  pull 
it  up  on  shore.  Then  comes  the  exciting  time 
for  seeing  whether  the  catch  will  repay  the 
heavy  labor  of  the  day.  On  one  occasion  I 
heard  a  more  than  usual  outbreak  of  fisher- 
men's imprecations.  For  variety  of  terms 
Arab  cursing  cannot  be  surpassed,  though  in 
all  countries  fishermen  are  unfortunately  noted 
for  bad  language,  as  our  OAvn  English  "  bil- 
lingsgate" testifies.  The  reason  for  this  par- 
ticular chorus  of  oaths  I  soon  saw  in  a  strange, 
dark-looking  mass,  evidently  of  fishes,  rolling 
over  and  over  in  the  net  meshes  as  it  was  yet 
heaving  in  the  breaking  waves.  It  proved  to 
be  a  large  shoal  of  sting-rays,  a  fish  which  is 
a  flat,  leather}'',  ungainly-looking  creature,  re- 
sembling our  flounder,  but  armed  with  a  long 
tapering  tail  ending  in  a  sharp  barbed  spine, 
which  is  a  dangerous  weapon  both  for  offence 


THE    DRAW-NET  '77 

and  defence.*  When  these  are  numerons, 
other  fishes  are  apt  to  be  scarce  in  the  catch, 
and  so  the  baskets  were  but  half  filled,  while 
the  discarded  rays  were  left  upon  the  sand. 
At  times  the  dreaded  electrical  torpedo  island- 
ed, while  at  others  the  Sidon  fishermen  are 
driven  to  distraction  by  immense  shoals  of  sar- 
dines, for,  as  the  Arabs  do  not  know  how  to 
preserve  them,  they  simply  leave  them  to  poi- 
son the  air  with  their  decaying  heaps.  At  no 
time  is  their  catch  good  throughout,  for  the 
Mediterranean  teems  with  a  wonderful  variety 
of  life,  including  "■  each  kind  of  badness,"  as 
every  fisherman  there  will  feelingly  tell  you. 
I  may  remark  in  passing  that  these  Moslem 
fishermen  interested  me  for  reasons  which 
they  would  not  have  suspected.  One  elder 
among  them,  wlio  faithfully  fulfilled  his  prom- 
ise to  bring  a  torpedo  fish  alive,  was  a  devout, 

*  The  case  of  a  New  Jersey  fisherman  attracted  a  good 
deal  of  notice  in  our  New  Yorli  newspapers  a  few  years  ago, 
who  was  killed  by  one  of  these  fishes  which  he  drew  into  his 
boat,  and  which  severed  an  artery  in  his  leg  by  a  single  blow 
of  its  tail,  so  that  he  bled  to  death  before  assistance  could 
reach  him  from  other  boats. 


78  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR    HOME 

simple-hearted  man,  who  refused  pay  out  of 
gratitude  for  a  small  medical  favor.  It  was 
easy  to  recognize  a  good  groundwork  in  his 
nature.  But,  as  a  class,  the  fishermen  of 
Saida  would  not  be  very  different  from  the 
ancient  fishermen  of  Galilee.  So  little  has 
been  the  change  that  dress,  habits,  manners, 
and  even  turns  of  colloquial  expression  still 
remain  to  afford  living,  yet  perfectly  corre- 
sponding, object-lessons  of  tlie  origin  of  our 
apostles.  Especially  is  the  mental  correspond- 
ence complete,  whether  we  regard  the  stock 
of  general  ideas  possible  to  either  as  a  class, 
or  the  religions  conceptions  that  would  occur 
to  men  living  under  the  traditional  rule  of 
Jewish  Pharisees  or  of  Mohammedan  ulems. 
If  so,  then,  humanly  speaking,  no  "  fishers  of 
men,"  or  persons  capable  of  drawing  into  cap- 
tivity multitudes  of  other  men,  could  be  ob- 
tained from  either  company.  The  "  environ- 
ment" about  which  some  philosophic  writers 
have  so  much  to  say,  renders  this  simpl}'  in- 
conceivable. The  chair  of  St.  Peter,  or  the 
court  of  St.  James,  indeed !  How  could  the 
names  of  those  Syrian  fishermen  have  become 


THE    DRAW-NET  TO 

SO  strangely  associated  ?  Not  to  speak  of  Ori- 
ental fishermen,  where  among  fishermen  the 
world  over  could  the  makers  of  great  history 
be  found  ? 

On  natural  principles  it  is  as  inevitable  that 
a  man's  mental  horizon  should  be  bounded  by 
the  conditions  of  his  life,  as  that  his  physical 
horizon  should  depend  upon  the  place  where 
he  stands.  The  Moslem  fishermen  of  our  day 
live  in  a  world  of  thought  which  is  wholly 
dominated  by  the  great  literary  caste  of  the 
ulema,  or  students  of  the  Koran,  Starting 
with  the  postulate  that  every  letter,  vowel,  and 
dot  of  that  book  was  brought  down  from  God 
by  the  archangel  Gabriel,  it  follows  that  noth- 
ing can  equal  in  worth  and  importance  the 
learning  of  God's  own  language,  and  hence 
the  life  of  the  ulem  is  spent  in  the  heavy 
study  of  the  laws  of  Arabic  grammar.  The 
Arabs,  therefore,  boast  that  they  have  twenty- 
five  thousand  books  on  this  sacred  science  in 
their  literature.  The  world  has  scarcely  seen 
such  an  example  of  the  concentration  of  hu- 
man toil  on  mere  words,  or  such  a  wilderness 
of  laborious  pedants  as  Islam  presents.     We 


80  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

have  to  go  back  to  the  doctors  of  the  law  in 
Christ's  day  to  lind  a  parallel  to  it. 

The  reward  is  a  superstitious  veneration  on 
the  part  of  the  coinnion  people  for  the  learn- 
ed sheikh,  which  is  wafted  as  a  sweet-smell- 
ing savor  to  his  nostrils  whenever  he  appears 
in  the  market-place.  But  nothing  possibly 
can  so  stir  the  human  heart  to  anger  as  to 
suggest  to  such  a  man  that  all  this  deference 
of  his  fellows  is  misplaced  because  there  is  a 
better  wisdom  than  his,  and  that  all  his  life's 
labor  has  been  misdirected  and  will  come  to 
naught !  Hence,  towards  a  representative  of 
a  Christian  civilization,  the  glance  of  hate  in 
a  ulem's  eye  is  simply  indicative  of  that  spirit 
which  prompts  those  recurrent  teri'ible  massa- 
cres of  Oriental  Christians  by  Mohammedans, 
of  which  the  world  has  by  no  means  witnessed 
the  last.  It  is  beo^ottcn  of  the  same  oris^in  as 
that  literary  caste  malignity  which  pursued 
our  Saviour  until  it  exulted  in  his  crucifixion. 
This  very  expression,  aami,  "  this  multitude," 
"which  knoweth  not  the  law,  are  accursed" 
(John  vii.  49),  I  have  myself  repeatedly 
lieard  from  the  lips  of  Arab  literati  as  they  re- 


THE    DRAW-NET  81 


ferred  to  the  common  herd,  and,  of  course,  it 
would  be  peculiarly  applicable  to  such  as  fish- 
ermen. The  fishermen,  on  the  other  hand, 
humbly  receive  this  estimate  as  no  more  than 
their  due.  To  regard  themselves  as  near  the 
lioly  level  of  the  doctors  of  their  law  and 
classical  language  would  never  enter  their 
minds.  In  everything,  and  especially  in 
speech,  they  feel  themselves  to  be  altogether 
vile.  It  was  thoroughly  natural,  therefore,  in 
Peter,  though  in  him  there  spoke  also  a  genu- 
ine feeling,  for  him  to  "  fall  down  at  Jesus' 
knees,  saying,  "  Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a 
sinful  man,  O  Lord"  (Luke  v.  8).  But  what 
a  solemn  lesson,  nevertheless,  did  that  dear 
good  soul  give  of  the  lasting  heart-pang  which 
an  old,  long-forsaken  evil  habit  may  yet  occa- 
sion by  its  sudden  revival  when  least  expect- 
ed !  "  But  he  began  to  curse  and  to  swear,  I 
know  not  this  man  of  whom  ye  speak !" 

The  parable  of  the  draw -net,  therefore, 
the  apostles  could  well  understand.  Unlike 
the  parable  of  the  tares,  which  was  given  to 
the  whole  multitude,  our  Lord  gave  this  to 
them  as  they  gathered  around  him  in  private. 


82  THE   PARABLES   AND   THEIR   HOME 

The  dijfference  in  scope  between  the  two  para- 
bles explains  this.  That  of  the  tares  applied 
to  the  whole  world  of  mankind  from  its  be- 
ginning. This  applies  rather  to  the  history  of 
the  Clinrch  in  that  world.  Therefore,  in  this 
parable  the  world  is  the  sea,  in  which  live  fish 
of  every  kind,  and  the  Church  is  to  be  a  great 
net  let  down  to  gather  men  out  of  that  sea. 
No  comparison  thus  could  have  made  plainer 
to  the  minds  of  those  fishermen  that  the 
Church  was  destined  in  the  future  to  extend 
immensely,  for  the  net  is  much  larger  than 
the  field  of  any  sower.  But  clearly  enough 
it  taught  them  also  that  the  fishing  for  men 
by  them,  and  by  their  successors,  was  to  bring 
within  the  great  folds  of  the  Church  many 
other  than  saints,  even  the  worst  kinds  of  the 
creatures  with  which  they  were  too  familiar. 
It  was  not  enough  that  they  should  think  of 
the  kingdom  as  sharing  the  common  lot  of 
the  world  itself  in  being  a  tare-strewn  field ; 
for  even  when  the  Church  should  have  its 
definite  bounds,  like  a  strong  net  in  the  sea, 
it  would  still  draw  within  itself  the  bad  with 
the  good.    There  is  no  way  for  opening  a  net, 


TllE    DKAW-NET  83 

while  it  is  being  drawn,  to  let  out  the  bad 
only.  The  separation  must  be  left  to  the  last, 
when  the  object  of  the  whole  labor  will  be 
found  in  the  good  kinds  alone  which  have 
been  secured. 

This  parable,  indeed,  emphasizes  the  lesson 
which  the  apostles,  like  all  true  Christians 
also,  would  be  slow  to  learn,  and  therefore 
would  need  to  have  reiterated  to  them.  The 
Church  of  Christ  is  a  sacred  and  a  beautiful 
ideal.  Ko  words  of  the  New  Testament  are 
so  strong  or  so  tender  as  those  which  describe 
the  sweet,  blessed  bride  of  the  Lord,  Why 
cannot  we  always  think  of  her  without  a  single 
association  of  evil?  Let  the  world  be  a  field 
where  Satan  walked  by  night ;  but  since  Jesus 
came  to  bring  his  own,  why  should  he  not 
draw  them  out  of  the  world  to  himself,  to  be 
a  peculiar  people,  a  holy  nation,  and  all  within 
the  same  great  fold  ?  But  Jesus  in  the  parables 
is  a  prophet,  not  an  idealist,  and  the  prophets 
of  the  Lord  were  not  wont  to  speak,  as  human 
imagination  ever  prompts,  of  a  coming  earthly 
perfection.  History  exactly  fulfilled  his  words. 
His  Church  has  become  a  thing  of  vast  extent 


84  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

in  the  world;  but  let  no  one  think  that  be- 
cause he  is  within  the  Church  therefore  must 
he  be  gathered  with  the  chosen  of  God  at  the 
last. 


THE  MUSTARD-SEED 


Matt,  xiii.,  31-32. 

Another  parable  put  Tie  forth  unto  tliem,  saying.  The 
kingdom  of  Jicawn  is  like  to  a  grain  of  mustard  seed,  which 
a  man  took,  and  soioed  in  his  field :  Which  indeed  is  the 
least  of  all  seeds :  (Mark,  is  less  than  all  the  seeds  that  be 
in  the  earth)  but  wlien  it  is  grown,  it  is  the  greatest  among 
Jierbs,  and  becometh  a  tree,  so  tlmt  tlie  birds  of  tlie  air  come 
and  lodge  in  tlie  branches  thereof. 


THE  MUSTARD-SEED 

The  four  parables  of  the  sower,  the  seed 
growing  secretly,  the  tares,  and  the  draw- 
net  certainlj'  had  ranch  in  thera  to  disappoint 
both  the  multitude  and  the  disciples.  In- 
stead  of  their  cherished  visions  of  a  mighty 
kingdom  suddenly  appearing  and  accomplish- 
ing the  conquest  of  the  world  in  their  genera- 
tion, these  parables  intimated  at  best  a  very 
gradual  development,  accompanied  by  much 
seeming  failure.  The  King  was  to  be  like  a 
sower  who  failed  three  times  out  of  four  to 
get  any  return  for  his  labor,  and  what  suc- 
cess he  had  was  not  at  all  uniform  in  degree. 
Then,  in  complete  contrast  with  the  dazzling 
apparition  of  Alexander's  kingdom,  the  king- 
dom of  the  Son  of  David  was  to  increase  as 
silently  and  imperceptibly  as  a  seed  unfolds 
itself — too  slowly  for  any  bystander  to  watch 
it  grow.  Again,  he  was  to  be  like  a  man 
whose  whole  work  was  irretrievably  damaged 


88  TUE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

by  the  malice  of  an  cnem}' ;  and,  finally,  ere 
his  kingdom  of  heaven  became  in  fact  what  it 
had  been  in  name,  many  of  his  followers  would 
be  found  so  wholly  unfit  for  it  that  they  would 
be  cast  away. 

In  the  four  parables,  however,  of  the  mus- 
tard-seed, the  leaven,  the  hid  treasure,  and 
the  pearl  the  prophecy  is  one  of  unqualified 
success.  The  first  pair,  the  mustard-seed  and 
the  leaven,  illustrate  the  two  great  aspects  of 
the  kingdom  in  its  relation  to  the  world.  That 
of  the  mustard-seed  foretells  how,  as  regards 
its  external  manifestation,  beginning  with  a 
gathering  of  120  souls  in  an  upper  chamber 
in  Jerusalem,  a  Christendom  was  to  grow 
which  would  attract  to  itself  many  diverse 
races  of  men;  while  that  of  the  leaven  tells  of 
that  within  it  which  no  birds  of  the  air  can 
see  nor  any  animals  know,  for  Influence  be- 
longs only  to  the  high  realm  of  spiritual  be- 
ings, and  therefore  is  outwardly  known  only 
by  its  effects. 

The  second  pair,  the  hid  treasure  and  the 
pearl,  go  straight  to  the  heart.  In  them  the 
kingdom  is  no  general  cause  of  country,  race,  or 


THE    MUSTAKD-SEED  89 

church,  but  a  fact  of  overpowering  individual 
love.  Men  and  women  are  represented  with 
their  own  personal  discoveries  of  a  precious- 
ness  in  it  which  none  but  heirs  of  heaven  could 
make,  for  at  once  every  earthly  possession  is 
surrendered  by  them  for  the  exchange.  Their 
discovery  is  the  King  himself  1  For  the  joy  of 
meeting  him  at  his  appearing  many  thousands 
in  all  ages  have  willingly  laid  down  their  lives. 
In  no  respect  does  history  ever  fail  abundantly 
to  fulfil  the  prophecies  of  the  parables. 

The  characterization  of  the  mustard-seed  as 
"less  than  all  the  seeds  that  be  in  the  earth" 
(Mark  iv.  31)  was  as  truthful  a  statement  by 
our  Lord  as  when,  in  the  parable  of  the  sower, 
he  said,  "  when  the  sun  was  risen "  (R.  V.), 
though  in  neither  case  was  he  scientifically 
accurate,  for  the  sun  never  rises,  and  botanists 
know  of  smaller  seeds  than  those  of  mustard. 
But  truthfulness  and  accuracy  are  not  neces- 
sarily synonj'mous  terms.  Nothing  can  be 
more  accurate  than  a  photograph  from  life, 
for  no  inaccuracy  can  be  detected  in  it  even 
by  a  microscope.  But  people  will  continue  to 
prefer  and  to  pay  for  an  expensive  portrait  by 


90  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR   HOME 

a  skilled  artist,  with  all  his  human  mistakes, 
rather  than  for  the  sorry  likenesses  which  the 
accurate  sun  often  makes  of  their  friends. 
Our  Lord  was  speaking  to  the  people  of  seeds 
which  they  daily  used,  and  whose  strong 
growth  was  before  their  eyes,  for  the  purpose 
of  emphasizing  the  apparent  insignificance  in 
its  beginning  which  would  characterize  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  The  illustration  of  the 
parable  lies  in  the  smallness  of  the  mustard- 
seed  compared  with  other  seeds,  rather  than  in 
the  greatness  of  the  subsequent  development, 
for  if  the  latter  were  his  object,  the  familiar  in- 
stance of  the  acorn  and  the  oak  would  have  an- 
swered better.  Yet  even  in  this  respect  the 
soil  of  Gennesaret  furnishes  an  example  strik- 
ing enough  in  the  size  of  its  mustard-plants, 
especially  just  about  the  shores  of  the  lake. 

All  around  the  Lake  of  Tiberias,  on  its  east- 
ern as  well  as  along  its  western  borders,  nu- 
merous hot  springs  pour  forth  their  waters, 
making  the  shores  in  many  places  yellow  with 
their  deposits  of  sulphur.  These,  when  dry, 
are  raised  by  the  winds,  to  descend  upon  the 
surrounding  soil,  rendering  it,  therefore,  pe- 


THE    MUSTARD-SEED  91 

culiarly  adapted  to  cause  the  mustard-plant  to 
flourish  beyond  what  it  does  probably  any- 
where else  in  the  world.  The  mustard-seed, 
as  is  well  known,  is  remarkable  for  the  large 
proportion  of  sulphur  which  it  contains,  and 
which  exists  in  it  in  a  peculiar  chemical  com- 
bination or  principle  to  which  the  activity  of 
mustard  is  due.  This  activity,  however,  does 
not  pre-exist  in  the  seed,  for  itr.  is  not  called 
forth  until  the  seed  has  been  crushed  and 
mixed  with  water.  Birds,  therefore,  can  eat 
the  seed  with  impunity,  and  in  the  proper 
season  the  traveller  on  Gennesaret  may  ride 
by  rnustard-bushes  as  high  as  his  horse,  and 
alive  with  flocks  of  merry  bullfinches  or  of 
rock-pigeons  feeding  upon  the  seeds. 

As  just  remarked,  the  particular  lesson  of 
this  parable  is  not  the  wonderful  increase, 
simpl}'  as  such,  of  Christ's  kingdom  in  the 
world  from  a  small  beginning,  though  this  is 
now  the  most  salient  fact  of  history.  Other 
great  religions  have  grown  also  from  a  small 
following  at  first  of  their  single  founders. 
The  personal  ministry  of  Mohammed  was 
more  than  twice  as  long:  as  that  of  Jesus  ere 


92  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOAIE 

he  could  count  seventy  disciples.  It  is,  there- 
fore, not  by  numerical  estimate,  but  rather 
when  we  compare  the  seed-pi"inciple  of  each 
of  these  historical  religions,  that  tlie  true  won- 
der of  Christ's  kingdom  is  revealed.  We  can- 
not, indeed,  illustrate  better  what  a  little  mus- 
tard-seed in  the  field  of  human  nature  the 
Gospel  seems  at  its  beginning,  when  meas- 
ured with  the.moral  obstacles  which  it  had  to 
overcome,  than  to  cite  the  contrasts  between 
Christianity  and  Islam,  which  even  their  many 
historic  parallels  only  serve  to  intensify.  Thus, 
both  these  religions  are  of  Shemitic  origin, 
and  both  have  led  great  races,  wholly  foreign 
to  the  Shemitic  world,  to  exchange  their  na- 
tive religions  for  an  earnest  devotion  to  the 
one  personal  God  of  Shem.  As  the  apostles 
went  forth  from  Judea  after  the  death  of 
their  Master  to  found  a  Christendom,  so  it 
was  after  the  death  of  Mohammed  that  the 
remarkable  body  of  men,  "the  Companions 
of  the  Prophet,"  issued  forth  from  Arabia  to 
found  the  wide  realm  of  Islam.  But  long  ere 
this  the  parallelism  gives  place  to  contrasts. 
Instead  of  the  scene  on  Palm-Sunday,  when 


TUE    MUSTAED-SKED  93 

Jesus  came,  a  few  days  before  his  death,  to 
the  city  which  rejected  him,  Mohammed  re- 
turned, a  short  time  before  his  death,  to 
the  Mecca  which  had  spurned  liim,  at  the 
head  of  114,000  of  the  best  warriors  and 
robbers  of  tlie  world.  But  does  liistorj 
find  it  difficult  to  explain  that  Arab  gath- 
ering to  the  standard  of  such  a  successful 
marauder  as  Mohammed  had  by  that  time 
proved  himself  to  be?  He  was  only  different 
from  the  savage  Soudan  Mahdi  of  this  age  in 
being  the  first  of  tlie  kind.  From  the  day 
that  a  race,  predatory  by  custom  and  by  de- 
scent, was  summoned  by  Mohammed  to  a  war 
upon  all  mankind,  every  distinctive  feature 
of  Islam,  whether  in  its  past  or  its  present,  is 
found  to  be  based  upon  easily  understood  mo- 
tives of  human  nature.  Thus  nothing  could 
be  more  welcome  to  the  heart  of  the  natural 
man  than  Mohammed's  compromise,  by  a 
mere  easily  repeated  sentence,  between  Al- 
lah and  the  old  human  passions  for  combat 
and  for  bodily  license.  Taught  that  they  can 
be  Allah's  sole  elect,  not  only  without  any 
inner  cross  to  bear,  but  enjoined  to  call  and 


94  TIIK    PARABLES   AND    THEIR   HOME 

to  treat  all  other  people  as  dogs,  Moslems  can 
be  extremely  devout  in  speech  while  ever 
ready  to  wage  religious  war  by  tongue  and 
by  sword  on  all  the  world.  As  man's  oldest 
and  most  natural  enemy  is  man,  so  the  fol- 
lower of  this  Ishmaelitish  religion  finds  it  in 
constant  harmony  with  his  native  instincts. 
What,  therefore,  the  life  of  the  original  seed 
in  these  two  religions  was  is  shown  by  the 
first  definite  step  of  each  in  its  development. 
Christianity  as  an  aggressive  movement  be- 
gan with  the  Day  of  Pentecost  —  that  day 
which  wholly  transformed  the  apostles  from 
the  men  which  they  had  been,  in  thought, 
word,  and  act,  into  the  men  who  established 
the  Church  in  the  world.  Islam,  likewise, 
by  a  true  instinct,  dates  its  beginning,  not 
from  Mohammed's  first  preaching  in  his  na- 
tive city,  but  from  his  Hegira,  or  flight  from 
Mecca,  for  that  event  wholly  transformed 
him  from  a  preacher  against  the  old  Arab 
religions  into  a  man  of  the  sword,  and  a  man 
who,  for  planning  and  for  executing  cold- 
blooded assassinations  of  individuals  or  massa- 
cres of  whole  bodies  of  men,  has  few  superiors 


THE   MUSTARD-SEED  95 

in  history  except  among  his  own  followers. 
Hence  it  was  but  a  natural  outcome  of  the 
spirit  of  the  Hegira  that  Mohammed's  own 
apostles  soon  fell  to  murdering  each  other, 
and  that  his  trusted  body-guard,  the  Ansar, 
were  all  shockingly  butchered,  with  their 
wives  and  children,  leaving  such  memories 
that  the  graves  of  the  first  three  caliphs,  who 
correspond  as  pillars  in  the  church  of  Islam 
to  Peter,  James,  and  John  in  the  Church  of 
Christ,  have  still  to  be  guarded  night  and  day 
from  insults  by  the  followers  of  Ali,  whom 
these  caliphs  treacherously  supplanted.  As 
it  began  from  the  Hegira  with  a  marauder, 
Islam  has  continued  ever  since  so  to  foster 
the  marauding  spirit  that  in  no  generation  of 
its  twelve  centuries  have  men  been  able  to 
travel  unarmed  from  one  city  to  another  in 
any  country  where  it  has  borne  sway.  The 
constant  danger  which  any  peaceable  travel- 
ler encounters  now  in  Morocco,  in  Arabia 
itself,  or  in  Afghanistan,  is  but  a  repetition 
of  the  same  old  story,  for  never  in  the  high 
days  of  the  caliphs  of  Bagdad  or  in  Spain 
could  caravans  be  dispensed  with.     The  best 


96      THE  PARABLES  AND  THEIR  HOME 

development  to  which  Arab  rule  ever  at- 
tained would  fairly  correspond  with  the  Italy 
of  the  Borgias.  Mohammedan  pilgrims  have 
always  had  to  fight  or  to  buy  their  way,  as 
they  do  still,  to  reach  Mecca  itself.  Moslems, 
indeed,  cease  to  rob  and  to  kill  each  other, 
as  well  as  other  people,  only  where  Christian 
power  compels  them  to  keep  the  peace. 

That  religion  should  ally  herself  with  hu- 
man passions  and  inclinations  was  no  new 
thing  in  the  world,  as  the  religions  of  an- 
tiquity everywhere  prove.  But  what  was  re- 
served to  Islam  was  to  make  the  God  of  the 
Old  and  of  the  l^ew  Testament  likewise  ac- 
ceptable to  the  original  bent  of  human  nature, 
and  especially  to  man's  dominant  passion, 
pride.  But  did  Christianity  offer  any  such 
allurement  when  her  voice  was  first  heard  ? 
Rather,  we  cannot  emphasize  the  difference 
in  this  respect  too  strongl3',  for  if  there  be  one 
term  fitly  descriptive  of  her  most  character- 
istic aspect  to  the  world  it  would  be — the  Re- 
ligion of  Humiliation.  Whence,  therefore, 
the  attraction,  or  what  the  promise  of  success 
in  a  cause  which  must  always  maintain  the 


THE    MUSTARD-SEED  97 

attitude  of  confession  ?  Even  now,  and  in 
Christian  lands,  many  find  it  is  not  easy  to 
confess  Christ.  That  fact  of  itself  implies  an 
element  in  Christianity  which  never  fails  to 
run  counter  to  the  most  constant  of  human 
inclinations,  the  passion  for  superiority.  But 
if  it  be  so  now,  what  must  it  have  been  in  the 
beginning,  when  this  seed  was  the  least  of  all 
the  seeds  that  were  in  tlie  earth  1  A  despised 
Galilean  village  gave  her  Founder  its  name, 
and  which  is  still  perpetuated  with  character- 
istic scorn  by  Islam  as  the  one  designation  for 
all  Christians — the  Nazarenes.  How  natural, 
also,  were  the  feelings  of  contempt  and  of 
hate  aroused  in  most  Jews  at  the  occasion  of 
Pilate's  insult,  not  so  much  to  Jesus  as  to 
them,  in  his  trilingual  inscription,  "  This  is 
the  King  of  the  Jews"  —  fitly  on  a  cross! 
Love  and  scorn  are  much  wider  apart  than 
love  and  enmity,  and  thus  all  the  facts  show 
that  more  than  mere  hostility  had  to  be  over- 
come ere  a  Jew,  with  his  native  conception  of 
his  expected  Messiah,  could  be  brought  to  ac- 
cept the  man  of  Nazareth  as  his  king.  As  a 
whole  the  nation  chose  to  die  first. 


98  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR   HOME 

But  when  we  turn  from  the  Jews  to  the 
rest  of  the  contemporary  world,  liow  could  the 
prospect  for  growth  of  the  new  seed  there  be 
more  unlikely?  The  Jews  themselves  were 
throughout  the  Roman  world  already  a  prov- 
erb of  dislike,  or  as  Tacitus  tersely  desig- 
nates them,  a  repulsive  people.  Their  expec- 
tation of  a  Jewish  conqueror  of  the  world 
was  as  well  known  as  it  was  despised,  so  that 
the  very  title  of  Messiah  was  a  term  for  ridi- 
cule. When  Paul,  therefore,  said  that  he  had 
nothing  to  tell  about  save  a  Messiah,  and  him 
crucified,  we  generally  fail  to  appreciate  the 
wonder  of  this  message  to  the  men  who  first 
heard  it,  on  account  of  our  very  different  and 
sacred  associations  with  the  word  cross.  To 
their  ears  it  came,  a  Jewish  Messiah,  and  a 
gibbeted  Messiah  at  that !  That  in  a  contest 
then  to  the  death,  continuing  through  three  cen- 
turies between  the  wonderfully  organized  pow- 
er of  Rome  and  the  wholly  unarmed  Church, 
it  was  the  Church  which  conquered,  has  been 
the  problem  of  history  for  explanation,  because 
the  struffijle  lasted  too  long  for  the  result  to 
be  ascribed  either  to  fortune  or  to  individuals. 


THE   MUSTARD-SEED  99 

But  a  more  impressive  testimony  still  to  her 
inherent  vitality  was  the  spread  of  Christian- 
ity among  the  savage  races  who  overthrew 
Rome,  because  historically  it  began  while  they 
were  yet  beyond  the  Rhine,  and  in  the  first 
instance  is  traced  to  captives  whom  they  had 
taken  in  their  incursions  into  Roman  terri- 
tory. It  has  been  well  said  that  by  the  time 
the  Northern  invaders  finally  subdued  the  em- 
pire they  had  become  already  better  Chris- 
tians than  the  Romans  were.  That  ere  that 
period  the  mustard -seed  had  become  a  tree, 
with  the  birds  flocking  to  its  branches,  was 
strikingly  shown  when  Rome  herself  was 
saved  by  appealing  to  the  German  tribes,  who 
had  stripped  her  of  everything  except  Italy, 
to  make  liead  with  her  against  the  terrible 
pagan  Hun,  and  to  overthrow  Attila  on  the 
field  of  Chalons,  because  he  came  to  destroy 
the  Church  of  Christ.  The  question  natu- 
rally arises.  How  came  those  shaggy  warriors 
to  be  imbued  with  a  reverence  for  that  Name  ? 
What  could  be  further  from  the  ideal  of 
fierce  manliness  of  the  old  Teutonic  hero 
than  this  image  of  meek  saiutliness  ?     Yet  so 


100  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

it  was  then,  and  ever  has  been  since,  tliat  a 
mighty  Christendom  has  grown  apace  in  the 
world,  more  and  more  uniting  the  nations  by 
bonds  of  principle  and  of  sentiment  which 
mark  them  off  very  distinctly  from  the  peo- 
ples of  either  Islam,  Brahminism,  or  Buddh- 
ism. Whatever  be  the  thongnts  of  men  about 
Jesus,  none  can  deny  that  his  forecast  in  this 
parable  has  been  quite  fulfilled,  in  that  his 
kingdom  in  its  external  development  has  be- 
come the  greatest  growth  of  history. 


THE    LEAVEN 


Matt,  xiii.,  33. 

AnotJier  parable  spake  he  iinio  them  ;  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  like  unto  leaven,  which  a  woman  took,  and  hid 
in  three  measures  of  meal,  till  the  whole  was  leavened. 


THE  LEAVEN 

Notwithstanding  the  uncertainty  which 
prevails  as  to  the  exact  equivalents  in  modern 
terms  of  ancient  measures,  it  cannot  be  doubt- 
ed that  the  three  measures  of  meal  which  con- 
stituted the  Hebrew  ephah  of  this  parable 
amounted  to  more  than  an  English  bushel  in 
quantity.  To  us  this  would  appear  as  more 
than  what  a  large  family  would  use  at  one 
baking,  but  the  conditions  of  ordinary  Pales- 
tinian life  do  not  render  it  at  all  unusual. 
Accustomed  as  we  are  to  a  great  variety  of 
food,  including  an  abundance  of  meat,  we  use 
bread  more  as  an  accompaniment  to,  than  as 
the  chief  article  of,  a  meal.  But  in  our  Sav- 
iour's time,  as  well  as  now,  the  main  food  of 
the  people  was  fermented  milk,  cheese,  olives 
and  oil,  figs,  raisins,  and  bread.  It  will  be 
seen  by  this  that  bread  is  literally  the  staff 
of  life  with  them,  to  which  all  else  is  subsid- 
iary, and  therefore  that  the  statement  of  the 


104  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

parable  simply  conforms  to  the  familiar  facts 
of  household  economy  in  that  land.  This  fact, 
however,  it  served  to  illustrate,  that  it  would 
not  be  a  small  world  which  finally  would 
become  wholly  leavened  by  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  ! 

As  in  the  case  of  the  term  "  seed,"  so  we 
may  say  that  to  this  parable  of  the  leaven 
modern  science  gives  a  peculiar  significance 
which  was  wholly  unknown  in  the  times  when 
the  parable  was  first  uttered.  Then,  and  un- 
til very  lately,  it  was  supposed  that  the  leav- 
ening of  bread  was  caused  by  an  inanimate 
material  acting  by  purely  physical  processes 
upon  the  meal  which  it  fermented.  This  was 
the  view  which  the  distinguished  chemist 
Liebig  maintained  to  the  last,  but  the  illustri- 
ous Pasteur  has  effected  the  greatest  and  most 
important  revolution  in  history,  so  far  as  the 
physical  life  of  mankind  is  concerned,  by  his 
epoch-making  researches  on  what  fermenta- 
tion really  is.  It  was  by  these  researches  that 
the  vitally  important  relations  became  known 
of  the  microscopic  forms  of  life  to  the  visible 
animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms,  whether  in 


THE    LEAVEN  105 

the  processes  of  liealtli  or  those  of  disease  and 
death.  Pasteur  has  demonstrated,  to  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  whole  scientific  world,  that 
ferments  are  not  portions  of  lifeless  organic 
matter  which  set  up  their  changes  by  their 
mere  presence  in  fermentable  substances,  but 
are  instead  actually  living  organisms,  and  that 
the  fermentation  which  they  occasion  is  a  nec- 
essary consequence  or  manifestation  of  their 
vital  activity  and  growth.  As  he  expresses 
it,  "  the  conversion  can  only  take  place  when 
the  material  to  be  fermented  comes  into  act- 
ual contact  with  the  living  protoplasm  of  the 
ferment."  One  result,  however,  of  the  action 
of  these  living  cells  is  the  formation  of  what 
may  be  termed  pervasive  cliemical  principles, 
which  extend  to  some  distance  from  the  cells 
into  the  surrounding  fermentable  material, 
profoundly,  though  at  first  scarcely  visibly, 
modifying  it,  and  preparing  it  for  the  subse- 
quent extension  to  it  of  the  growing  ferment. 
Another  development  from  these  discover- 
ies is  that  the  variety  of  organisms  which  are 
capable  of  inducing  fermentation  is  seemingly 
limitless.     This  in  fact  constitutes  one  of  the 


106  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR    HOME 

greatest  practical  difficulties  in  producing  many 
of  the  fermentations  in  common  use,  for  the 
desired  result  is  often  utterly  vitiated  by  the 
contamination  of  the  proper  ferment  by  the 
entrance  with  it  of  some  form  of  what  is 
technically  termed  a  "  wild"  yeast,  wliich  may 
grow  so  as  wholly  to  supplant  with  its  evil 
working  the  action  of  a  "  cultivated "  yeast. 
How  to  procure  a  "  pure  "  yeast  is  therefore 
one  of  the  most  carefully  investigated  prob- 
lems of  this  branch  of  economic  chemistry. 

With  these  preliminaries,  we  can  now  turn 
to  the  great  lessons  of  this  parable  about  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Tlie  leavening  of  the 
world  of  which  it  speaks  refers  to  much 
deeper  and  more  hidden  results  than  those 
aspects  of  the  kingdom  to  which  the  parable 
of  the  mustard -seed  corresponds.  Even  the 
most  superficial  observer  cannot  overlook  the 
Church  in  the  world,  while  the  true  effect  of 
her  being  there  might  be  entirely  un perceived 
by  him.  The  surface  of  the  meal  before  the 
whole  is  leavened  often  appears  much  the  same 
that  it  ever  was,  notwithstanding  the  great 
change   which   has  already  occurred  within. 


THE    LEAVEN  107 

There  is,  in  fact,  nothing  more  hidden  than 
the  springs  of  human  conduct.  Often  they 
are  deeper  than  the  consciousness  of  their 
possessors,  and  this  parable  refers  just  to  that 
element  in  human  life  which  reaches  down 
below  beliefs  and  opinions,  customs  and  laws, 
to  the  sources  of  them  all  in  the  motives  and 
promptings  of  the  spirit.  In  more  senses  than 
one  it  is  the  spirit  which  is  the  life,  for  thence 
proceed  both  belief  and  conduct.  Therefore 
we  can  speak  just  as  properly  of  the  spirit  of 
an  age  as  we  can  of  the  spirit  of  an  individ- 
ual. We  recognize  by  such  a  phrase  not  so 
much  the  prevailing  sentiments  or  opinions 
of  an  age  as  that  profounder  animating  ele- 
ment which  makes  opinions  and  sentiments 
prevail. 

Thus  we  are  often  told  in  these  days  that 
it  is  useless  to  enact  good  laws  unless  there 
exist  a  public  sentiment  which  will  enforce 
them.  But  what  is  this  public  sentiment 
without  which  law  might  as  well  not  be  ?  It 
assumes  no  outward  form,  often  indeed,  it  is 
not  even  articulate.  It  owes  its  existence  in- 
stead to  the  intercommunion  of  human  minds 


108  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

and  spirits.  Our  very  word  "  coinmnnitj," 
when  applied  to  people  residing  together,  is 
a  recognition  of  the  great  fact  that  men  cannot 
be  together  without  becoming  sharers  in  each 
others'  lives.  From  one  to  the  other,  from 
the  highest  to  the  humblest  and  back  again, 
there  are  constantly  passing  streams  of  influ- 
ence, acting  and  reacting  until  not  a  life  es- 
capes being  very  different  on  that  account 
from  what  it  would  have  been  by  itself,  or 
from  what  it  would  have  been  in  a  very  dif- 
ferent "  community."  A  public  sentiment, 
therefore,  is  born  of  the  passing  of  thought 
and  of  feeling,  often  nneonsciously,  from  one 
living  soul  to  another,  just  as  the  vital  work- 
ing of  the  leavening  cells  passed  silently  from 
particle  to  particle  in  the  three  measures  of 
meal. 

That  a  great  change  has  come  over  the 
spirit  of  men  just  where  the  bi'anches  of  the 
tree  of  the  first  parable  overshadow  them,  but 
nowhere  beyond,  is  evident  enough,  though 
how  that  change  has  come  about  is  disputed. 
Many  strive  to  regard  it  as  spontaneous,  or 
maintain,  as  Matthew  Arnold  expresses  it,  that 


THE    LEAVEN  109 

there  is  a  stream  or  tendency  wliicli   makes 
for  righteousness,  whose  origin  is  as  unknown 
as  the  force  of  gravitation.     That  this  stream 
or  tendency  is  found  only  in  Christendom  is 
looked  upon  by  such  minds  as  but  a  coinci- 
dence.    But  the  facts  are  these :    One  who 
lived  wiien  the  leaven  was   first  hid  in  the 
meal  only  confirmed  the  accounts  by  Eoman 
writers  themselves  of  the  spirit   of  the  age 
when  he  described  the  men  of  that  world  as 
"filled  with  all  unrighteousness,  wickedness, 
covetousness,    maliciousness ;    full    of   envy, 
murder,  strife,  deceit,  malignity ;  whisperers, 
backbiters,  haters  of  God,  insolent,  haughty, 
boasters,  inventors  of  evil  things,  disobedient 
to  parents,  without  understanding,  covenant- 
breakers,  without  natural  affection,  unmerci- 
ful"!  (Rom.  i.  29-31).     Not  a  word  of  this 
terrible  indictment  can  be  denied,  for  Roman 
poets,  philosophers,  and  historians  only  am- 
plify it  as  they  describe  their  contemporaries. 
A  people  whose  continuous  amusement  was 
to  see  gladiators  slaughtered,  or  aged  slaves 
crucified,  simply  enjoyed  cruelty.     We  natu- 
rally shrink  from  the  thought  that  this  race 


no  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR    HOME 

had  much  iii  connnon  with  us,  and  would  fain 
hope  that  such  a  species  of  mankind  has  for- 
ever passed  awaj.  But  from  my  own  per- 
sonal knowledge  I  am  sure  that  whole  com- 
munities of  Mohammedans  now  would  enjoy 
just  such  spectacles  of  the  slaughter  of  Chris- 
tians which  the  proletariat  of  Rome  did  under 
Nero.  At  present,  in  British  India,  the  moral 
chasm  which  separates  the  European  from  the 
Asiatic  in  their  respective  sentiments  about 
truth  and  human  brotherhood  is  so  great  that 
neither  side  understands  the  other  at  all.  It 
is  no  insult  to  an  Asiatic  to  be  called  a  liar, 
and  cruelty  he  regards  as  akin  to  courage. 
When  the  volcanic  explosion  occurs  there, 
which  may  happen  at  any  time,  the  utter 
powerlessness  of  such  agencies  as  a  free  press, 
railroads,  telegraphs,  and  the  rest  of  alleged 
world  transformers  to  leaven  human  nature 
with  true  goodness  will  be  startlingly  proven. 
That  this  is  not  because  it  is  Asiatic,  but  be- 
cause it  is  human  nature  which  is  in  question, 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  where,  even  in  Europe, 
men  are  found  who  in  common  reject  Chris- 
tianity and  her  God,  the  same   unleavened 


THE   LEAVEN  111 

spirit  manifests  itself  on  occasion  as  of  old. 
The  strongest  light  of  modern  civilization  in 
France  certainly  showed  no  sweetness  of  ef- 
fect on  the  Communards  of  1870.  These 
truths  amply  prove  that  the  meal  in  the  meas- 
ure neither  can  nor  has  changed  itself,  but 
that  it  is  changed  only  by  a  new  life  put  into 
it,  which  works  according  to  its  own  laws  into 
ejffects  caused  alone  by  its  presence  and  growth. 
But  as  leavening  comes  only  by  a  living  proc- 
ess, so  Christians  should  never  forget  that 
only  by  the  pervading  effects  of  a  true  Chris- 
tian life  can  the  world  be  leavened  ! 

And  what  wondrous  transformations  has  it 
produced,  though  scarcely  as  yet  has  it  fully  per- 
meated even  one  of  the  three  measures !  Little 
by  little,  its  hidden  influence  on  the  hearts  of 
individuals  generated  a  new  spirit  in  the  world 
of  virtue  and  kindliness,  which  purified  the 
home,  made  men  sick  of  the  sight  of  blood 
in  the  amphitheatre,  lessened  progressively 
the  awful  evils  of  ancient  slaver}^  till  it  ended 
slavery  itself,  visited  the  sick  and  sought  out 
the  prisoner,  until  finally  its  spirit  has  spread 
to  the  field  of  battle  itself,  and  enjoined  the 


112  TUE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

same  tender  and  skilled  care  for  a  wounded 
enemy  as  for  a  wounded  con)rade.  In  the 
world  of  Islam  men  cannot  trust  one  another 
enough  even  to  form  a  commercial  company, 
60  that  the  marvels  produced  by  sncli  co-oper- 
ation in  our  trading  or  industrial  fields  are  a 
mystery  to  them.  This  is  only  one  of  many 
illustrations  of  that  blessed  unifying  life 
which  has  entered  our  poor  warring  world, 
everywhere  permeating  the  springs  of  human 
nature  vrith  that  new  sense  of  mutual  obliga- 
tion which  can  be  satisfied  with  nothing  short 
of  truth,  justice,  mercy,  and  good-will  towards 
all.  Was  not  the  coming  of  that  kingdom, 
whose  beneficent  influence  would  thus  ex- 
tend alike  to  all  the  concerns  o-f  human  life, 
justly  named  Glad  Tidings  to  all  the  world  ? 

It  was  to  meet  the  narrowness  of  human 
view  that  the  parable  of  the  leaven  forms  so 
neediul  an  accompaniment  to  the  parable  of 
the  mustard^seed.  Our  Lord's  kingdom  in 
the  world  is  a  subject  too  great  and  too  many- 
sided  to  have  even  one  of  its  aspects  adequate- 
ly represented  by  a  single  illustration.  An 
undue  attention  to  the  important  truth  which 


THE    LEAVEN  113 

the  parable  of  the  mustard-seed  enforces  has 
led,  in  fact,  to  two  widely  prevalent,  though 
opposite,  forms  of  error.  The  growth  of  the 
mustard-seed  corresponds,  as  we  have  seen,  to 
the  visible  growth  in  the  world  of  the  Church. 
So  great  and  imposing  has  that  been  that  mul- 
titudes accordingly  have  been  more  attracted 
by  this  aspect  of  the  kingdom  than  by  any 
other.  There  have  been,  therefore,  many  who 
were  more  zealous  as  churchmen  than  as  Chris- 
tians. Moreover,  as  only  one  mustard-seed  is 
spoken  of  as  planted,  so  it  has  been  argued 
that  there  could  be  only  one  visible  Church, 
and  hence  external  evidences  of  her  place  and 
relative  growth  have  been  much  relied  upon 
to  support  the  claims  of  contending  parties. 
But  in  the  kingdom  as  a  hidden  leaven  in  the 
world  there  is  a  lesson  which  opposes  this 
whole  tendency,  for  the  criterion  which  it 
establishes  is  not  how  much  of  the  world  has 
been  overshadowed  by  the  Church,  or  by  her 
branches,  but  how  much  has  the  world  by  her 
been  changed  in  spirit,  and  brought  nearer  to 
the  fulfilment  of  the  prayer  that  the  will  of 
God  become  also  the  will  of  man  on  earth. 


114  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

Tlie  external  view  of  the  Church,  on  the 
other  hand,  has  led  many  to  charge  Christi- 
anity with  a  host  of  wrongs  and  shortcomings 
which  historically  have  been  associated  with 
her  name.  Thus  tlie  Roman  world  became 
nominally  Christian,  and  likewise  in  turn  the 
European  nations  which  succeeded  Rome. 
But  naming  a  thing  is  not  changing  it,  and 
hence  Christianity  tlirough  the  centuries  has 
had  to  bear  the  reproach  of  numberless  mani- 
festations of  the  old  unleavened  world  of 
human  evil  working  under  the  cover  of  her 
sacred  name.  It  is  a  cause  for  thankfulness, 
tlierefore,  that  as  time  goes  on  the  unnatural 
alliance  of  the  Church  and  the  world  is  laps- 
ing by  Providential  limitation.  The  murderers 
of  the  French  Commune  and  the  anarchists 
of  our  day  are  the  descendants,  both  natural 
and  spiritual,  of  the  murderers  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's Day,  but  tliey  no  longer  call  themselves 
Christians  or  children  of  the  true  Church. 
With  each  generation  the  essential  antago- 
nism of  the  spirit  of  Christ's  kingdom,  and 
tlie  spirit  of  the  world  is  becoming  more  and 
more   recognized,  thus   imparting   a   greater 


THE.  LEAVEN  115 

unity  to  both  sides.  But  while  this  may  re- 
sult in  apparently  a  sliarper  conflict  than  ever 
for  the  Church,  yet  to  those  who  look  beneath 
the  surface  every  indication  of  our  times  is 
that  the  leaven  of  the  kingdom  is  permeating 
the  world  more  rapidly  than  in  any  preced- 
ing age,  according  to  the  law  of  life  that  the 
more  the  individual  cells  multiply  the  more 
others  like  them  are  born.  Rather  it  is  signifi- 
cant of  the  spread  of  the  true  leaven  that  un- 
belief itself  is  now  obliged  to  borrow  the  garb 
of  Christian  ethics,  and  to  preach  the  gospel 
of  Altruism  as  the  hope  of  humanity. 

The  disturbing  element  in  certain  sought- 
for  fermentations  through  the  contamination 
with  "  wild  "  yeasts,  which  we  have  mentioned 
above  as  revealed  by  modern  investigations,  is 
not  without  its  striking  spiritual  parallels  in 
the  history  of  the  Church.  Nothing  so  im- 
presses the  reader  of  Church  history  as  the 
amazing  multiplication  of  Gnostic  and  other 
heretical  sects  in  the  first  centuries  of  the 
Church's  career.  Scarcely  had  she  been  freed 
from  her  conflict  with  the  Judaizing  teachers 
of  the  apostolic  times  than  the  Greek  world 


116  THE    PARABLES   AND   TUEIR   HOME 

supplied  a  crowd  of  invaders  who  threatened 
completely  to  overrun  her  field  with  their 
noxious  speculative  growths.  That  they  and 
60  many  other  forms  of  evil  doctrine  have  all 
in  turn  become  extinct,  is  a  greater  testimony 
to  the  possession  of  a  divinely  imparted  life  in 
the  Church  than  her  survival  from  the  con- 
flicts with  her  external  foes  in  the  world. 


THE  HID  TKEASUEE 


Matt,  xiii.,  44. 

Again,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  unto  treasure  hid  in 
afield;  the  which  ichen  a  man  hath  found,  lie  hidetJi,  and 
for  joy  thereof  goeth  and  selleth  all  tfiat  he  hath,  and  buy- 
eth  that  field. 


THE  HID  TREASURE 

What  it  is  to  find  a  hid  treasure  in  Syria 
was  once  well  illustrated  during  my  residence 
in  Sidon.  A  land-owner  of  the  town  had  hired 
a  band  of  seventeen  peasants,  men  and  women, 
to  dig  up  a  field  of  about  an  acre  to  plant  it 
with  orange -trees.  For  such  a  purpose  the 
custom  is  to  run  close  together  parallel  trench- 
es about  three  feet  in  depth,  and  then  turn 
the  soil  into  them  until  the  whole  field  is  thus 
gone  over.  As  I  watched  them  from  the  win- 
dows of  our  house  on  the  city  wall,  I  was 
amused  at  the  slowness  of  their  work,  one  map 
pushing  into  the  soft  sandy  soil  a  long  wood- 
en shovel,  Avhich  was  then  pulled  out  by  anoth- 
er with  a  rope.  For  such  labor  the  daily  wa- 
ges of  the  men  was  about  twelve  cents  of  our 
money,  and  of  the  women  nine,  paid  in  the 
wretched,  dark-looking  Turkish  piastre,  which 
is  a  thin  piece  of  copper  with  a  trace  of  a  silver 
coating.     One  day  two  of  the  men  while  in 


120  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR    HOME 

a  trench  turned  up  a  leaden  box  more  than  a 
foot  long,  and  as  the  man  with  the  spade  was 
a  dull  fellow  his  companion  lifted  it  out  and 
threw  it  under  a  fig-tree  near  by,  remarking, 
"  This  is  nothing  but  an  old  relic ;  we  will  see 
what  it  contains  by-and-by."  In  a  moment, 
however,  another  box  was  also  unearthed, 
which,  on  being  struck  with  the  spade,  let 
out  a  stream  of  glittering  pieces  of  gold  !  In 
a  moment  the  whole  seventeen  men  and  wom- 
en were  upon  the  spot  in  a  heap,  fighting  and 
screaming  as  only  Arabs  can  at  such  a  sight, 
until  one  of  them  sagely  called  for  silence  lest 
their  hubbub  would  attract  others  to  share  the 
prize  with  them.  "Let  us  quietly  dig,"  said 
he,  "  and  see  if  there  be  any  more  of  these 
precious  boxes,  and  then  at  night  we  will  di- 
vide the  treasure  equally  between  us."  His 
advice  was  followed,  when  a  third  box  was 
found,  and,  as  the  sequel  showed,  very  proba- 
bly a  fourth.  Unfortunately,  at  their  noctur- 
nal division,  one  of  the  women  thought  that 
she  did  not  receive  her  full  share,  and  in  re- 
venge she  stole  away  to  the  mutsellim,  or 
Moslem  governor's  house,  and,  showing  him 


THE    HID   TREASURE  121 

some  of  the  pieces,  that  official  lost  no  time 
to  collect  his  guard,  and  to  sally  out  and  capt- 
ure the  whole  company  before  they  had  sepa- 
rated. The  next  day  the  entire  city  was  in  a  fer- 
ment at  the  news,  and  soon  the  British  consular 
agent  at  Sidon  called  at  our  house  with  an  ac- 
count  of  his  interference  with  the  governor 
to  stop  his  torturing  the  unfortunate  peasants 
so  as  to  wring  from  them  the  full  secret  of  the 
find.  This  the  consul  had  a  right  to  do,  as  the 
Turkish  government  had  stipulated  with  the 
European  powers  to  abolish  torture  in  the 
Sultan's  dominions.  The  scene  which  he  de- 
scribed was  graphic  enough  :  of  the  mutsellim, 
with  a  wide  silk  keffeeyeh  spread  on  the  rug  be- 
fore him,  with  a  larger  pile  of  gold  coins  there- 
on than  any  Sidonian  had  ever  beheld,  while 
the  poor  creatures  were  screaming  nnder  an  an- 
cient form  of  thumb -torture  inflicted  upon 
them  by  the  savage  Moslem  guard.  By  the  rep- 
resentation of  the  European  consular  agents  the 
poor  fellows  were  at  last  released,  and  even 
some  of  the  money  obtained  from  this  treas- 
ure was  subsequently  distributed  among  them. 
For  a  long  time   afterwards,  however,  stray 


122  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

pieces  of  these  antique  coins  continued  to  be 
surreptitiously  sold  in  Sidon,  so  that  doubtless 
the  whole  treasure  was  not  given  up  by  the 
peasants.  They  were  all  gold  coins  of  Philip 
of  Macedon  and  of  Alexander  the  Great,  of 
the  most  beautiful  workmanship,  the  latter 
appearing  as  if  they  had  been  just  struck  from 
the  mint. 

It  can  be  readily  appreciated  that  to  any 
one  of  that  poverty-stricken  band  the  dispar- 
ity between  the  worth  of  the  least  of  these 
gold  pieces  and  the  utmost  reward  of  his  daily 
toil  would  make  him  willing  to  part  with  all 
his  worldly  goods,  if  so  he  could  gain  that 
treasure. 

The  land  of  the  parables  is,  in  fact,  undoubt- 
edly full  of  such  buried  treasures,  for  scarce  a 
year  passed  of  my  residence  there  in  which 
I  did  not  hear  of  such  discoveries.  Once  I 
bought  several  silver  coins  of  the  Seleucida? 
of  Antioch  from  a  considerable  collection  of 
them  which  some  children  found  shining  in  a 
mole-hill  near  a  village  of  Upper  Galilee,  and 
on  another  occasion,  not  a  hundred  yards  from 
our  house  in  Sidon,  a  soldier  found  an  earthen 


THE    HID    TREASURE  123 

jar  full  of  old  Turkish  gold  coins,  which  were 
struck  by  the  early  sultans  before  Turkish 
money  had  become  debased.  The  reason  for 
these  frequent  discoveries  is  not  far  to  seek. 
For  more  than  forty  centuries  it  has  been  a 
common  practice  with  the  inhabitants  of  that 
country  to  bury  their  silver  and  their  gold 
whenever  a  war  or  an  oppressor  threatened 
them  with  the  loss  of  all  they  had ;  and  when 
we  consider  how  often  in  the  history  of  that 
land  cities  and  towns  have  been  captured,  and 
the  inhabitants  either  all  massacred  or  sold  as 
slaves,  it  is  no  wonder  that  the  secret  of  such 
hidden  treasures  in  multitudes  of  instances 
perished  with  those  who  buried  them.  Such 
hiding  of  silver  and  of  gold,  I  knew,  was  still 
going  on  when  I  lived  there  by  native  Chris- 
tian merchants,  on  the  oft-recurring  fears  of 
massacres  by  their  Moslem  neighbors,  and  with 
good  reason,  as  the  terrible  slaughter  of  the 
Christians  in  Damascus  in  1860  proved.  There 
being  no  way  open  in  former  times  of  trans- 
ferring valuables  from  one  country  to  anoth- 
er, the  silent  bosom  of  mother  earth  thus  has 
ever  been  the  one  receptacle  thought  of  by 


124  THE    PARABLES   AND   TIIEIR    HOME 

the  Oriental  for  safe  keeping.  In  many  in- 
stances government  officials  or  rulers  have 
similarly  buried  vast  treasures.*  From  the 
fact  that  this  large  sum  of  Macedonian  gold 
found  in  Sidon  was  exclusively  made  up  of 
fresh  coins,  those  of  Alexander  apparently 
having  never  been  used,  it  is  very  probable 
that  the  leaden  boxes  were  deposited  where 
they  were  found  by  some  embezzler  among 
Alexander's  own  army  officials  while  that 
monarch  was  residing  in  Sidon,  when  he  was 
conducting  the  siege  of  Tyre.  So  settled  was 
this  practice  even  in  Plicenician  times  that 
every  inscription  yet  found  on  the  sarcophagi 
of  Phoenician  kings  consists  chiefly  of  earnest 
adjurations  to  treasure-seekers  not  to  disturb 
their  rest,  because  they  would  find  no  valu- 
ables within. 


*In  the  Reminiscences  of  the  Great  Mutiny,  by  W.  Forbes 
Mitchell,  p.  152,  is  given  a  graphic  account  of  the  labors  of 
the  soldiers  of  the  93d  Highlanders,  with  other  detachments, 
in  raising,  from  a  well  at  Poona,  boxes  containing  money 
valued  at  £306,250,  besides  plate  and  other  valuables  said  to 
be  worth  more  than  a  million  sterling,  which  had  been  se- 
creted there  by  Nana  Sahib  in  his  flight  from  Cawnpore. 


TUE    HID   TREASURE  125 

When,  here  in  America,  the  legend  of  a 
noted  buccaneer  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
named  Captain  Kidd,  having  buried  a  treasure 
of  Spanisli  gold  somewhere  between  points  a 
thousand  miles  apart  along  our  Atlantic  coast, 
has  led  to  numerous  attempts  to  find  it,  we 
need  not  wonder  that  in  Syria  every  inhabi- 
tant has  hopes  that  ere  he  dies  he  shall  become 
boundlessly  enriched  by  such  a  secret  gift  of 
fortune.  Tales  of  the  kind  excite  the  imagi- 
nation of  every  child  in  that  land,  and  they 
continue  to  cherish  them  throughout  life. 
Scarcely  does  a  man  indulge  in  an  unusual 
outlay  or  expense  but  his  neighbors  begin  to 
rally  him  with  questions  whether  he  has  come 
upon  some  golden  store  in  a  field  or  well. 

It  is  this  wide-spread  and  well-founded  be- 
lief that  there  are  buried  treasures  of  untold 
value  all  over  the  land  which  furnishes  the 
special  parallel  to  a  great  truth  about  Christ 
and  men  in  this  world.  Instead  of  a  surprise 
undreamt  of,  as  a  treasure-trove  would  be  to  a 
man  in  this  country,  this  parable  is  based  upon 
a  most  familiar  idea  to  dwellers  in  Palestine, 
of  riches  heard  of  throughout  their  lives,  and 


126  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

whose  discovery  is  constantly  hoped  for.  But 
are  not  the  riclies  of  Christ  and  the  kinjrdom 
of  heaven  widely  known  and  spoken  of  among 
ns  ?  Yet  nothing  is  truer  than  that  the  world 
does  not  see  them,  but  ever  leaves  them  to 
become  matters  of  personal  discovery. 

It  is  M'ell  to  ponder  why  this  is  so.  In  no 
other  religion  is  there  anything  which  corre- 
sponds to  this  finding  of  Christ  by  the  Chris- 
tian. In  a  Mohammedan  country  all  men  hear 
about  Mohammed,  just  as  in  a  Christian  coun- 
try all  men  hear  about  Christ ;  but  does  a  Mos- 
lem ever  need  to  "  find  "  Mohammed  ?  And 
yet,  though  multitudes  have  been  told  from 
their  childhood,  often  most  earnestly  by  their 
own  parents,  what  an  inestimable  gift  from  God 
is  Christ,  nevertheless,  in  an  important  sense, 
he  always  remains  hidden,  and  a  treasure  to  be 
found.  To  the  end  of  time  this  seeming  par- 
adox of  the  parable  will  liold  true.  Neither 
the  hearing  of  the  ear,  nor  the  reasoning  of  the 
mind,  nor  any  enumeration  of  the  "evidences 
of  Christianity  "  will  change  the  fact  that  the 
true  revelation  of  Christ  to  a  man  is  ever  a 
new  as  well  as  a  most  critical  event  in  his  life. 


THE    HID    TREASURE  127 

The  great  difference  among  men  in  their 
estimation  of  Christ  is  solely  due  to  this  fact. 
To  some  lie  is  their  all  in  all,  practically  dom- 
inating their  everj'  object  and  choice  in  life. 
Their  devotion  to  him  is  such  that  they  are 
ready  to  surrender  for  his  sake  all  that  men 
naturally  would  hold  to  the  last.  Whenever 
the  test  has  come,  life  itself  has  not  been  too 
precious  to  be  refused  by  the  Christian  for  his 
Lord.  But  all  this  is  as  inexplicable  to  the 
men  of  the  world  as  the  action  of  a  man  who 
would  exchange  his  whole  property  for  a 
small,  barren-looking  field.  Most  men  of  the 
world,  indeed,  secretly  regard  Christians  as 
deluded  visionaries.  And  so  they  are  unless 
Christ  be  an  infinitely  greater  treasure  than 
all  the  treasures  together  of  this  world.  But 
if  he  be  of  such  transcendent  worth,  why  is 
he  to  the  world  as  gold  buried  out  of  sight  ? 

We  need  not  feel  this  to  be  a  difficulty 
when  we  consider  that  it  is  not  the  knowledge 
of  Christ  only  which  is  similarly  hidden  from 
men.  Other  momentous  facts  which  concern 
all  men  without  exception  appear  to  be  just 
as  strangely  buried  out  of  their  sight.    Thus  if 


128  THE    PARABLES   AND   THEIR    HOME 

there  be  any  certainty  on  earth,  it  is  that 
death  awaits  every  one  born  into  this  world ; 
and  yet  who  does  not  act  as  if  practically  he 
felt  that  he  need  not  take  death  into  account  ? 
So  strong  is  this  confidence  in  one's  own  im- 
mortality here,  so  to  speak,  that  in  war  men 
can  always  be  found  to  lead  a  forlorn  hope 
more  from  a  feeling  that  others  are  to  fall  and 
not  they  than  from  any  deliberate  calculation 
of  the  risk  to  be  run.  We  do  not  even  find 
advancing  age,  with  its  clear  demonstration 
that  the  end  cannot  be  far  off,  yet  bring  the 
grave  any  nearer  to  view,  for  men  then  still 
behave  as  if  it  were  as  distant  to  them  as  ever. 
Old  men  are  as  ready  as  any  younger  men  to 
build  houses  which  they  cannot  long  occupy, 
or  to  plant  trees  whose  fruit  they  can  scarcely 
expect  to  gather. 

Now  it  is  a  mistake  to  say  that  this  is  be- 
cause men  cling  to  life.  It  is  not  because  they 
cling  to  life,  but  because  they  forget  death. 
It  is  because  the  other  world,  and  everything 
w^hich  concerns  it,  even  the  portal  of  its  en- 
trance, are  so  wholly  hidden  from  men's  minds 
by  this  present  world  that  no  thoughts  but 


THE    HID    TKEASURK  129 

those  which  go  below  the  surface  of  their 
daily  lives  will  ever  awaken  them  to  the  im- 
portance of  the  hereafter,  and  thus  to  the  su- 
preme importance  of  Christ. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  great  thing  for  a  man  to 
find  his  thoughts  awakening  to  the  weighty 
subject  of  the  End.  It  is  then  that  he  has 
begun  to  tread  a  field  where  a  great  treasure 
can  be  found.  For  it  is  impossible  to  appre- 
ciate the  full  significance  of  death  to  us  here 
without  soon  recognizing  what  a  sad  orphan- 
age human  life  without  God  is  on  this  earth. 
The  one  word  which  best  comports  with  the 
facts  of  man's  earthly  existence  is — insecurity. 
Made  to  enjoy  and  to  love  many  things,  not 
one  of  them  can  he  be  sure  of  for  a  day. 
Years  make  every  one  more  and  more  a  loser, 
and  if  he  attain  to  old  age,  what  has  he  at- 
tained to  then  but  to  a  wreck  of  his  former 
self.  Finally,  he  is  told  by  the  world  that  the 
debt  of  Nature  has  to  be  paid.  Need  we 
wonder,  in  view  of  what  that  last  payment  is, 
often  after  so  many  other  heavy  payments, 
that  many  wish  the  debt  had  never  been  in- 
curred?    It  is  a  pathetic  illustration  of  the 


130  TUE    PARABLES    AND   TUEIR    HOME 

underlying  sense  of  their  orphanage,  that  so 
man}'  millions  of  our  race  have  accepted  the 
teaching  of  the  Gautama  Buddha  that  all  con- 
scious existence  is  a  punishment,  and  that  the 
best  thing  which  can  come  to  a  good  man  is  an 
eternal  sleep !  But  to  every  heart  burdened 
with  earth's  dark  destiny  and  darker  ending 
comes  the  word  of  this  parable,  joined  with 
that  former  gracious  injunction,  "  Seek,  and 
ye  shall  find."  Not  a  heavenly  kingdom  on 
earth,  which  therefore  must  perish  with  all 
earthly  things,  but  ye  shall  find  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,  where  the  Father  waits  the  coming 
of  his  child.  When  that  is  found,  all  the 
weight  of  man's  helplessness  here,  and  of  life's 
long  poverty,  vanishes.  Naked  we  came  into 
this  world,  but  the  finding  of  this  treasure  in- 
sures our  leaving  it  rich  indeed  with  an  eter- 
nal possession  which  cannot  be  spent ;  for  it 
is  not  the  pay  of  the  hireling  who  barely  lives 
by  paying  it  out  again.  The  man  who  finds  a 
hid  treasure  has  not  received  it  in  payment,  nor 
could  he  ever  have  earned  a  tithe  of  its  value  by 
his  own  exertions.  So  he  who  works  on  earth 
even  for  a  heavenly  reward,  will  be  paid  only 


THE    HID   TKEASUKE  131 

according  to  the  wages  of  earth,  and  in  its 
poor  coin,  without  receiving  one  of  the  golden 
pieces  of  God's  great  treasure.  As  unfamiliar 
to  him  at  first  as  were  the  shining  ancient 
coins  to  the  eyes  of  the  poor  Sidon  peasants, 
he  who  begins  to  take  the  full  measure  of  this 
treasure  of  the  parable  which  so  long  has  been 
waiting  for  him  learns  more  and  more  of  its 
inestimable  worth,  though  he  may  not  be  able 
to  reveal  it  to  the  world,  and  only  carry  the 
full  knowledge  of  it  as  his  own  secret.  But 
this  he  knows,  that  its  revelation  of  a  loving 
fellowship  with  God,  cemented  by  Christ,  and 
furnished  for  every  step  of  his  sojourn  here, 
exchanges  the  sense  of  life's  loneliness  for  the 
sanctifying  sense  of  a  sacred  companionship 
which  shall  not  end  until,  with  all  who  are 
made  pure  in  heart,  he  shall  see  God ! 


THE   PEAEL 


Matt,  xiii.,  45,  46. 

Again,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  like  'unto  a  mercliant- 
man,  seeking  goodly  pearls :  Who,  when  he  had  found 
one  pearl  of  great  price,  went  and  sold  all  that  lie  had,  and 
bought  it. 


THE  PEARL 

A  PEAKL  of  the  first  quality  is  unquestion- 
ably the  most  beautiful  object  in  nature. 
However  brilliant  the  hard  and  cold  diamond 
may  be,  yet  it  cannot  approach  in  loveliness 
the  bright  but  delicate  lustre  of  the  pearl. 
Moreover,  as  an  authority  on  the  subject  re- 
marks, "of  all  the  objects  employed  as  orna- 
ments, the  pearl  is  almost  the  only  one  which 
derives  nothing  from  art.  On  the  contrar}', 
all  attempts  to  give  it  more  value  only  end  in 
deteriorating  it."  *  Its  worth,  therefore,  is 
always  intrinsic,  and  wholly  dependent  upon 
its  own  properties.  Hence  the  very  great 
difference  between  pearls.  There  are  natural 
pearls  of  a  beautiful  form  and  ample  size, 
which,  however,  do  not  display  those  wonder- 
ful reflections  of  white  light  mingled  with 
azure  which  command  a  great  price.     They 

*  A  Popular  Account  of  Gems,  by  Louis  Dieulafait,  p.  192, 
Scribner. 


136  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR   HOME 

are,  therefore,  called  dead  pearls,  and  may  be 
very  cheaply  bought.  In  all  ages  the  pearl 
really  possessing  the  purest  tints  outranks  in 
costliness  all  except  a  very  few  diamonds. 
Julius  CsBsar  gave  one  such  to  Servilia,  the 
sister  of  Cato,  for  which  he  paid  a  sum  equal 
to  $223,000  of  our  money.  A  jewel  which 
cost  but  one-thousandth  of  this  amount  would 
generally  be  considered  expensive,  but  so  rare 
and  yet  unmistakable  is  the  highest  quality 
of  these  exquisite  objects  tliat  history  abounds 
with  statements  of  still  more  extraordinary 
sums  which  have  been  paid  for  single  pearls. 
We  should  not  fail  to  note,  therefore,  that 
when  such  a  pearl  is  found  by  the  seeker,  he 
knows  that  only  in  the  highest  quarters  should 
he  offer  it.  "  One  famous  pearl  was  brought 
from  the  Indies  by  Gorgibus  of  Calais,  and 
presented  to  Philip  IV.  of  Spain.  '  How  have 
you  ventured,'  asked  Philip  of  the  merchant, 
'  to  put  all  your  fortune  into  such  a  little  ob- 
ject?' 'I  knew  there  was  in  the  world  the 
king  of  Spain  to  buy  it  of  me,'  the  merchant 
answered.  There  was  but  one  royal  way  of 
rewarding  such  faith  as  this,  and  Philip  IV. 


THE    PEARL  137 

became  forthwith  the  owner  of  the  pearl  of 
Gorgibus."  * 

Special  knowledge,  indeed,  of  the  highest 
order  is  requisite  on  the  part  of  a  pearl  mer- 
chant. Only  long  acquaintance  with  the  re- 
spective merits  of  thousands  of  specimens 
would  fit  him  safely  to  put  all  his  fortune  into 
one  '  such  little  object,'  knowing  that  by  doing 
so  he  was  making  a  very  great  gain.  But  both 
in  ancient  times  and  in  the  Orient  to  this  day 
tlie  search  of  a  merchant  for  goodly  pearls  is 
one  which  commonly  entails  much  personal 
hardship  and  danger.  Whether  on  the  shores 
of  the  Red  Sea  or  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  where 
the  pearls  are  obtained  from  the  fishermen, 
those  regions  have  always  had  an  evil  repute 
for  the  character  of  their  inhabitants.  Even 
in  Bagdad  or  in  Damascus,  the  life  of  a  man 
known  to  be  carrying  a  pearl  of  great  price 
about  him  would  not  be  safe  for  an  hour.  Of- 
ten, therefore,  these  possessors  of  costly  pearls 
disguise  themselves  and  accompany  caravans  as 
poor  religious  beggars  or  pilgrims,  while  they 

*  A  Popular  Account  of  Gems,  by  Louis  Dieulafait,  p.  196, 
Scribner. 


138  THE    I'AUABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

may  have  secreted  in  their  bosoms  more  than 
what  would  buy  all  the  goods  of  their  com- 
panions. We  need  not  wonder,  therefore, 
that  the  man  himself  becomes  an  enthusiast 
over  the  preciousness  of  his  treasure.  His 
whole  life  is  bound  up  in  it.  His  one  sole 
restorative,  through  the  long  desert  journey, 
is  secretly  now  and  then  to  feast  his  eyes  upon 
its  matchless  beauty,  while  he  thinks  of  the 
hour  when  it  shall  give  him  entrance  into  the 
presence  of  the  king. 

The  difference  between  the  parables  of  the 
hid  treasure  and  the  pearl  is  that  the  find- 
ing of  the  treasure  might  occur  to  any  one, 
though  in  fact  it  usually  comes  to  a  poor 
working-man  while  engaged  in  his  ordinary 
daily  toil,  and  because  he  happened  to  be  so 
engaged.  The  pearl  merchant,  on  the  other 
hand,  devotes  himself  to  a  definite  search,  for 
which  he  has  undergone  a  long  training,  so 
that  he  can  appreciate  the  different  values  be- 
tween pearls,  while  he  never  ceases  to  hope 
that  he  will  yet  gain  possession  of  some  un- 
equalled prize  which  will  crown  the  labor  of 
his  life.     Frequent  arc  the  parallels  to  such  a 


THE    PEARL  130 

seeker  in  the  story  of  the  Church  of  God  of 
pure  and  noble  spirits  who  by  nature  were  in- 
clined to  be  ever  looking  for  the  goodly  pearls 
of  truth  just  for  their  own  sake.  In  the 
searcli  for  wisdom  and  knowledge  there  are 
many  such  pearls  to  be  found  whose  value  is 
great,  and  it  testifies  to  a  high  instinct  in  a 
man  for  him  to  choose  any  such  pursuit.  The 
precious  pearl  of  the  parable  does  not  pre- 
clude there  being  in  the  world  many  other 
beautiful  and  costly  gems  which  are  worth 
seeking  and  possessing.  It  only  enjoins  the 
search  for  the  one  pearl  which  will  be  worth 
presenting  to  the  king,  and  it  implies  that  the 
knowledge  of  all  true  pearls,  instead  of  hin- 
dering, will  rather  assist  the  more  in  finding 
this  greatest  of  them  all. 

The  memory  of  one  such  seeker,  Justin 
Martyr,  should  ever  be  cherished  by  the 
Churcli  with  especial  affection  as  the  forerun- 
ner of  many  who  through  the  ages  have  wit- 
nessed to  the  prophecy  of  this  parable  by 
letting  the  world  know  why,  after  much  seek- 
ing, they  found  no  preciousness  like  the  pre- 
ciousness  of  Christ.    At  this  very  day  the  tes- 


140  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

tiraony  of  Justin  is  fought  over  between  the 
friends  and  the  foes  of  Christianity,  from  a 
clear  recognition  of  its  historical  importance. 
In  his  Dialogue  Justin  tells  his  own  story 
with  that  simple  sincerity  which  gives  the 
true  strain  of  his  nature,  for  he  wrote  with  a 
perfect  knowledge  that  it  might  bring  death 
to  him,  as  in  fact  it  did.  Justin  began  as 
a  searcher  for  truth  among  the  old  philo- 
sophic schools.  He  applied  first  to  a  Stoic, 
then  to  an  Aristotelian  peripatetic,  then  to  a 
Pythagorean,  and  then  to  a  Platonist.  With 
this  last  teacher  he  seemed  to  himself  to  grow 
wiser  every  day.  It  was  at  that  time,  "  when," 
as  he  says,  "in  my  foil}'  I  hoped  soon  to  attain 
to  a  clearer  vision  of  God,  that,  seeking  calm 
and  retirement  by  the  sea-shore,  I  met  an  aged 
man,  meek  and  venerable,  who  led  me  at 
length  from  philosophy  and  metaphysics  to 
faith.  '  Pray  before  all  things,'  were  the  last 
words  of  this  new  master,  '  that  the  gates  of 
light  be  opened  to  you.'  Immediately  "  (after 
prayer),  Justin  adds,  "a  fire  was  kindled  in 
my  soul,  and  as  I  discussed  his  arguments 
with  myself,  I  found  Christianity  to  be  the 


THE    PEARL  141 

only  philosophy  that  is  sure,  and  suited  to 
man's  wants.  Thus,  then,  and  for  this  cause, 
am  I  a  philosopher." 

It  was  a  dangerous  thing  at  that  time  for  a 
man  like  Justin  to  let  it  be  known  that  he  had 
come  upon  such  a  discovery.  It  meant  that 
he  should  be  ready  for  it  to  give  up  every- 
thing— name,  philosophy,  life.  But  ready  to 
exchange  all  these,  he  came  forward  to  ad- 
dress Marcus  Aurelius  in  defence  of  Christ 
and  his  cause,  appealing  as  a  philosopher  to  a 
philosopher.  The  result  was  that  the  philo- 
sophic Aurelius  became  all  the  more  deter- 
mined that  he  who  claimed  the  right  as  a  phi- 
losopher to  advocate  the  cause  of  the  despised 
Galilean  should  pay  for  it  with  his  blood. 
Need  we  doubt  that  Justin  now  found  his 
pearl  steadily  gain  in  its  sweet  lustre,  till 
from  his  prison  he  went  forth  to  kneel  at  the 
block  ?  A  short  moment  there,  and  he  passed 
to  give  his  one  treasure  to  Him  who  alone 
could  own  it.  For  now  the  splendid  pearl  is 
seen  to  be  the  man  himself,  reflecting  in  his 
perfected  spirit  all  the  glory  of  Heaven's  pure 
liffht.    The  treasures  of  wisdom  and  of  kuowl- 


142  THE    PARABLES    AND    THEIK    HOME 

edge  which  the  world  prizes  so  much  God 
does  not  need,  for  lie  has  them  ail  and  more. 
But  what  he  has  long  and  ever  desired  is  the 
possession  of  just  such  sons  of  men.  "And 
they  shall  be  mine,  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts, 
in  that  day  when  I  make  up  my  jewels."  (Mal- 
aclii  iii.  17,  rendered  in  the  Revised  V^crsion, 
"  a  peculiar  treasure.") 

Everything  in  the  preceding  parables  leads 
np  to  this  pair  of  the  hid  treasure  and  of  the 
pearl  as  the  crowning  teaching  of  them  all. 
A  wide  field  of  thought  intervenes  between 
the  conception  of  the  seed  of  the  first  parable 
and  the  pearl  of  great  price,  for  we  come  to 
the  inmost  heart  of  the  truth  about  the  king- 
dom when  it  is  presented  as  a  single  object  of 
inestimable  worth  which  is  only  found  by  a 
man  for  himself.  The  teaching  of  the  hid 
treasure  and  of  the  pearl,  therefore,  refers  to 
a  deeply  personal  relation  of  the  kingdom, 
which  from  its  very  nature  cannot  be  spoken 
about  always  and  everywhere.  Our  Lord  in- 
deed had  enjoined  before  a  wise  form  of 
Christian  reticence,  which  by  some  is  too  of- 
ten forgotten,  when  he  said,  "  Cast  not  your 


THE    PEARL  143 

pearls  before  swine."  So  there  is  a  sacred 
truth  about  Christ  and  each  believer  which 
the  world  can  neither  see  nor  appreciate,  but 
which  is  the  one  explanation  of  Christ's  en- 
during hold  upon  men  from  age  to  age.  It 
is  this  which  sustains  liis  follower  just  when 
he  has  to  go,  as  all  others  have  to  go,  alone 
to  the  grave.  The  difference  between  the 
Christian  and  all  others,  then,  is  this  pearl,  or 
the  knowledge  that  Jesus  is  his  own  divine 
redeemer.  If  Jesus  be  only  a  man  there 
would  be  no  room  in  him  for  that  knowledge 
of  every  individual  heart  w^hich  the  Christian 
is  taught  to  depend  upon.  No  finite  being, 
though  an  archangel,  could  ever  fill  the  place 
of  Christ  at  death,  because  for  that  great  hour 
of  individual  experience  the  human  heart  can 
accept  nothing  less  than  God,  that  blessed  In- 
finite One  who  alone  can  be  to  each  man  as  if 
he  were  the  only  one  of  his  children.  The 
mysterious  union  of  each  of  his  people  to 
Christ,  of  which  the  New  Testament  speaks, 
becomes,  therefore,  an  intelligible  doctrine 
when  the  truth  about  the  Son  of  God  is 
known.     To  feel  that  he  knows  all  about  us 


144  THE    I'AUABLES    AND    TIIEIK    HOME 

as  God  only  can  know — our  longings  and  our 
fears,  and  everj'tliing  which  our  spirits  would 
express,  but  for  weakness  cannot — and  that  he 
will  supply  out  of  his  divine  love  whatever 
we  lack,  making  us  rich  indeed,  now,  at  death, 
and  forever,  is  that  personal  revelation  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  whose  preciousncss  can- 
not be  told  in  M-ords.  That  Jesus  died  for  ev- 
ery man  is  a  doctrine  which  implies  that  he 
could  do  so  as  an  actual  fact,  and  not  in  a  gen- 
eral or  representative  sense.  It  is  this  con- 
viction which  consecrates  every  life  so  bought 
to  a  complete  heart  service  in  life  to  Ilini  who 
thus  has  become  the  dearest  of  friends,  our 
helper  in  every  need  and  difficulty,  whether 
without  or  within,  even  to  the  hour  when  his 
shepherd  form  will  be  seen  going  before,  as 
wc  follow  into  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of 
Death. 


THE  HOUSEHOLDER'S   TREASURE 


Matt,  xiii.,  51,  52, 

Jesus  saith  iinto  them.  Have  ye  understood  all  these 
things?  They  say  unto  him,  Tea-,  Lord.  Then  said  he 
unto  them.  Therefore  every  scribe  which  is  instructed  unto 
the  kingdom  ofJicamn,  is  like  vnto  a  man  tbat  is  a  house- 
holder, which  bringeth  forth  out  of  his  treasure  things  new 
and  old. 


THE  HOUSEHOLDER'S  TREASURE 

The  close  of  our  Lord's  teaching  on  that 
eventful  day  at  the  Lake  was  with  an  illustra- 
tion given  to  his  disciples  of  the  varied  as- 
pects and  many-sidedness  of  the  kingdom 
which  he  was  to  establish  through  them  upon 
the  earth.  At  present,  as  in  that  age,  the  dis- 
tribution of  wealth  in  Palestine  is  so  unequal 
that  the  difference  is  wide  indeed  between  the 
common  man,  whose  shelf  shows  only  a  few 
vessels  of  clay,  and  whose  coat  is  his  one  cov- 
ering at  night  (Exod.  xxii.  27),  and  the  "  son 
of  men,"  as  the  Arabic  term  is  for  those  who 
correspond  to  the  "householders"  of  the  para- 
bles. During  my  own  young  days  we  spent 
the  summer  months  at  Mount  Lebanon  vil- 
lages in  the  ordinary  houses  of  the  people, 
where,  among  other  signs  of  the  same  pover- 
ty as  in  old  times,  the  infants  are  still  not 
uncommonly  laid  during  the  daytime  in  the 
mangers  of  the  cattle.     Such  an  experience 


148  THE    PARABLES    AND   THEIR    HOME 

makes  one  appreciate  how  our  modern  man- 
ufactures have  enriched  the  homes  of  our 
poor  witli  many  an  article,  from  a  glass  tum- 
bler to  a  clock,  which  even  the  rich  could  not 
show  in  former  times.  But  in  contrast  with 
our  cheaply-turned -ont  fineries,  the  store  of 
a  wealthy  emir  may  abound  with  treasures 
which  no  machine  can  duplicate,  precious  in 
material,  and  still  more  in  the  art  and  skill 
which  wrought  them.  Among  these  would  be 
cashmere  shawls,  embroideries  in  cloth  and 
leather, splendid  vessels  of  silver  and  of  gold; 
inlaid  armor  and  jewelled  sword-hilts,  with 
blades  whose  steel  is  the  despair  of  modern 
metal-workers.  These  are  his  things  old, 
shown  with  a  just  historic  pride,  and  not  old 
in  the  sense  that  such  a  man  would  keep  in 
his  store  anything  worn  out.  Kather  that 
which  he  would  show  as  new  acquisitions 
would  have  to  be  of  much  intrinsic  value,  so 
as  to  correspond  with  the  high  worth  of  the 
old. 

This  illustration  of  the  householder  was 
based  upon  the  examples  which  our  Lord  had 
just  given  how  the  one  theme  of  the  kingdom 


THE  householder's  TREASURE      149 

afforded  many  great  themes  of  varied  inter- 
est and  of  supreme  importance.  Always  will 
there  be  many  precious  things  old  and  pre- 
cious things  new  to  offer  to  this  poor  world 
about  the  kingdom  of  God.  With  such  a  sub- 
ject a  Christian  teaclier  lias  no  excuse  for 
sameness  or  dulness,  and  should  be  the  last 
man  to  be  charged  with  a  poverty  of  ideas. 
Also  he  should  no  more  dwell  monotonously 
on  some  one  truth  out  of  the  rest  of  his  rich 
store  than  the  householder  would  bring  forth 
but  one  of  his  treasures  as  if  that  were  all. 
Such  a  phrase  as  "  preaching  the  simple  Gos- 
pel "  should  never  imply  that  the  Gospel  it- 
self is  simple,  for  it  is  very  much  the  reverse, 
and  so  infinitely  varied  in  its  relations  to  the 
hearts  of  men  that  no  man  can  preach  it  truth- 
fully by  merely  repeating  the  words  of  an- 
other man,  even  though  an  inspired  man.  He 
must  instead  give  something  of  the  newness 
of  his  own  spirit  and  feeling  to  illustrate 
whatever  precious  old  truths  it  affords  him, 
for  God  has  not  made  men  duplicates  in  their 
hearts  or  in  their  experiences  any  more  than  in 
their  features  or  their  voices.     Each  genera- 


150  THE    PAKABLES    AND    THEIR    HOME 

tion,  also,  is  a  new  generation,  and  a  preacher 
should  show  that  he  is  a  man  of  his  time  as 
well  as  one  well  furnished  with  the  rich  her- 
itage of  former  generations. 


CONCLUSION 


CONCLUSION 

We  may  say,  in  conclusion,  that  in  one  great 
respect  the  parables  are  a  special  revelation 
of  Christ  himself.  An  illustration  always 
implies  something  very  definite  in  the  mind 
beforehand  which  is  to  be  illustrated,  and 
hence  from  these  parables  we  deduce  the  cen- 
tral conception  itself  which  Jesus  had  from 
the  beginning.  Pervading  them  all,  and  uni- 
fying them  as  parts  of  one  whole,  is  his  King- 
dom of  Heaven.  Much  of  the  significance  of 
the  parables,  however,  the  men  of  that  day 
could  not  enter  into  because  they  were  proph- 
ecies, whose  coming  true  we  can  perceive 
now,  but  which  then  required  generations  yet 
unborn  to  prove.  Jesus  looked  far  beyond 
the  multitude  standing  before  him  to  scenes 
and  events  of  a  very  distant  future.  He  fore- 
told that  the  kingdom  which  was  then  the 
least  of  all  the  seeds  would  wax  so  great  that 
his  and  its  natural  foes,  even  the  very  chil- 


154  THE    TARABLES    AND    TUEIR    HOME 

dren  of  Satan,  would  fain  ally  themselves 
with  it  for  their  own  purposes.  This  kind  of 
success  would  never  have  occurred  to  human 
imagination,  but  history  answers  with  such 
spectacles  as  the  Caesar  entering  the  fold  from 
motives  of  worldly  calculation,  and  after  him 
more  than  one  great  monarch  compelled  to 
fall  at  the  feet  of  men  who  claimed  all  power 
on  earth  because  they  were  the  successors  of 
one  of  those  fishermen  of  that  day  on  the 
Lake.  Though  happily  such  forms  of  fulfil- 
ment of  the  parables  of  the  tares  and  of  the 
draw-net  cannot  recur  now  that  the  worldly 
attractions  of  the  Church  are  lessening,  yet  it 
remains  true  that  no  men,  whether  Jews  or 
not,  would  have  pictured  a  coming  kingdom 
other  than  with  the  old  bodily  sway  of  a 
political  dominion,  witliout  the  faintest  con- 
ception of  that  mightier  rule  over  the  spirits 
as  well  as  the  bodies  of  men  which  Jesus 
knew  that  his  kingdom  would  wield  even 
when  perverted. 

These  aspects  of  the  kingdom,  however,  are 
but  its  incidental  historical  accompaniments. 
Above  all  and  through  all  runs  the  great  truth 


CONCLUSION  155 

that  his  kingdom,  though  in  this  world,  is  not 
of  this  world,  but  of  heaven.  This  conception 
was  too  high  not  only  for  the  Galilean  multi- 
tude, but  for  other  multitudes  as  well,  down 
to  our  own  day.  There  are  some  among  us 
who  fondly  cherish  an  ideal  which  is  virtually 
the  same  as  that  of  the  ancient  Jews,  of  a 
kingdom  which  Christ  will  establish  at  his 
Second  Advent,  when  he  will  personally  reign 
in  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  But  one  would  sup- 
pose that  even  in  the  days  of  Jewish  expec- 
tancy some  thoughtful  minds  would  have 
asked,  of  what  abiding  worth  can  any  earthly 
kingdom,  even  the  Messiah's,  be  to  men,  when 
at  best  they  could  enjoy  its  benefits  only  for 
the  brief  period  of  their  natural  lives  ?  "With- 
out death  being  abolished,  along  with  disease 
and  suffering,  without  the  whole  present  econ- 
omy of  nature  being  entirely  changed,  how 
could  men  have  but  a  life  interest,  so  to 
speak,  in  such  an  estate?  But  if  such  a 
change  should  occur,  of  what  service  would 
an  earthly  Jerusalem  be  then  for  the  many 
millions  of  the  human  race  of  any  generation, 
not  to  mention  all  the  redeemed  of  every  gen- 


156  THE    PARABLES   AND   THEIR   HOME 

eration,  a  multitude  we  are  told  which  no  man 
can  number  ?  The  entire  area  of  the  Jerusa- 
lem which  our  Lord  visited  does  not  equal 
the  area  of  the  Central  Park  of  New  York. 
Such  a  fact  shows  how  easily  the  imagination 
can  emancipate  itself  from  all  reasoning  when 
it  turns  to  dreaming  about  the  Lord's  king- 
dom. 

Moreover,  the  conceptions  of  many  minds 
about  the  future  triumph  of  the  Church  on 
earth  are  bound  with  much  the  same  sort  of 
secular  limitations ;  for  they  plainly  think 
more  of  her  restoration  to  full  power  in  this 
present  world  than  of  her  connection  with  the 
world  to  come.  But  are  the  Christians  of  the 
future,  or  of  the  millennium,  to  possess  a  great- 
er importance  in  the  kingdom  than  we  do, 
or  than  those  who  have  preceded  us  in  the 
faith?  After  all  is  said  about  the  importance 
of  the  visible  Church  on  earth,  how  can  she 
for  a  moment  compare  in  true  personal  inter- 
est for  every  one  with  the  Church  in  heaven  ? 
It  would  be  well  for  any  one  who  sets  such 
store  upon  the  particular  church  "pale"  in 
which   he  is  found   to  reflect  how  he  may 


CONCLUSION  157 

meet  at  the  King's  riglit  hand  with  his  chosen 
ones  out  of  another  fold.  Of  what  importance 
will  it  then  seem  to  which  temporary  fold  on 
earth  the  heirs  of  the  everlasting  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  belonged  ? 

In  corapletest  contrast  with  all  such  passing 
things  as  any  and  every  kingdom  which  men 
conceive  of,  spoke  in  the  parables  He  whose 
words  shall  not  pass  away,  though  the  heav- 
ens and  the  earth  shall  pass  away.  Here  he 
tells  us  that  man  is  not  a  temporary  being,  be- 
cause he  belongs  to  a  kingdom  which  shall 
have  no  end.  There  is,  and  there  always  has 
been,  a  thing  permanent  in  man,  and  that  is 
religion.  The  forms  in  which  this  element  in 
his  nature  has  manifested  itself  have  constant- 
ly varied,  changed,  and  passed  away,  but  his 
interest  in  religion  itself  has  remained  un- 
changed and  unchangeable,  as  it  ever  seeks  to 
find  its  last  and  abiding  resting-place.  In  these 
parables  our  Lord  foretold  the  story  of  long 
ages  to  come  because  he  knew  that  he  was 
dealing  with  a  permanent  force  in  human 
nature  which  comes  from  man's  intuition  that 
there  is  more  than  this  world  which  he  sees 


158  THE    TAIiABLES   AND  THEIR   HOME 

about  him,  and  a  life  more  enduring  than  that 
which  his  fleeting  breatli  sustains.  This  old 
witness  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  our  Lord 
appealed  to  when  lie  exclaimed,  "  He  who  hath 
ears  to  hear,  let  him  hear!"  for  men  always 
have  been  conscious  of  a  higher,  purer,  better 
life  than  they  find  anywhere  in  this  world.  In 
proportion  to  their  longing  for  such  a  world 
would  their  hearts  be  natural,  honest,  and 
good,  and  thus  ready  to  receive  tlie  seed-be- 
ginning of  its  life  from  Him  who  is  its  divine 
sower.  That  seed  would  manifest  itself  first 
in  the  field  of  earthly  life  where  it  was  sown, 
in  bringing  forth  tlie  fruits  of  righteousness, 
peace,  and  all  goodness,  until  this  world  itself 
would  become  transformed  and  changed  by 
the  mighty  but  silent  working  of  this  heaven- 
sent life.  Do  not  the  mind  and  the  heart  both 
answer  that  his  words  must  be  true,  for  how 
else  can  a  life  in  heaven  be  possible  ?  With- 
out a  nature  purified  from  every  trace  of  that 
love  of  self  which  is  the  source  of  all  sin,  im- 
mortality, with  its  inconceivable  opportunities 
for  action,  would  be  only  an  awful  curse.  But 
with  a  perfect  transformation  into  the  likeness 


CONCLUSION  159 

of  the  King  himself,  wliose  name  is  the  Lamb 
of  Sacrifice,  entitling  the  changed  man  then  to 
society  with  him  and  with  all  the  sons  of  God, 
our  Lord's  revelation  of  such  a  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  makes  it  meet  indeed  to  exchange  all 
this  poor  world  can  give  for  its  priceless  and 
beautiful  inheritance. 


THE   END 


CHRIST  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT 

JESUS  CHRIST  IN  THE  OLD  TESTAMENT;  or, 
The  Great  Argument.  By  W.  II.  Thomson',  M.A., 
M.D.,  Professor  of  Materia  Mcdica  aud  Therapeu- 
tics, Medical  Departmeut  University  of  New  York. 
Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  $3  00. 


The  book  is  worthy  in  every  way  of  careful  reading,  and 
we  trust  it  will  do  much  to  confirm  the  faith  of  wavering 
Christians,  and  show  the  "  internal  critics  "  that  men  outside 
the  pulpit  see  the  folly  of  their  assaults  on  God's  Word  just 
as  plainly  as  those  who  preach  the  whole  Bible's  simple 
truth  to  sinners. — Christian  Intelligencer^  N.  Y. 

The  argument  of  the  author  is  masterly,  grand,  unanswer- 
able. It  should  be  carefully  studied  by  all  who  wish  to  have 
an  intelligent  understanding  of  the  fundamental  truths  of  the 
Word  of  God. — Interior,  Chicago. 

Dr.  Thomson's  special  qualifications  for  the  task  lie  in  his 
familiarity  with  Oriental,  Arabic,  and  Jewish  habits  of 
thought  aud  expression,  and  with  the  scenery  and  modes  of 
life  of  those  lands  where  the  Bible  writings  originated,  while 
his  own  scientific  training  fits  him  for  exactness  of  reason- 
ing.— N.  Y.  Times. 

A  book  which  can  be  recommended  to  the  thoughtful  stu- 
dents of  the  life  of  our  Lord  as  related  to  Old  Testament 
prophecy.  It  is  fresh,  stimulating,  and  eminently  readable. 
Dr.  Thomson's  style  -is  stirring  and  aggressive. — Sunday 
School  Times,  Philadelphia. 

We  commend  this  book  to  all  our  readers,  aud  more  espe- 
'cially  to  the  clergy. —  Churchman,  N.  Y. 


Pdblished  by  HARPER   &   BROTHERS,  New  York. 

gST'The  above  imrh  is  for  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  will  be  sent 
by  the  xiuhlishers,  postage  prepaid,  to  anij  part  of  the  United  States, 
Canada,  or  Mexico,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


MODERN  MISSIONS 
MODERN  MISSIONS  IN  THE  Ex\ST.  Their 
Metliods,  Successes,  and  Limitations.  By  Ed- 
ward A.  Lawrence,  D.J).  With  an  Introduc- 
tion by  Edward  T.  Eaton,  D.D.,  LL.D.  Post 
8vo,  Cloth,  $1   75. 


Most  of  tiic  contents  of  this  volume  were  first  given  to 
the  pubhc  in  the  form  of  lectures  at  Andover  Theological 
Seminary,  and  later  at  the  Yule  Divinity  Scliool  and  at  Beloit 
College.  It  gives  an  account  of  a  missionary  journey  around 
the  world,  undertaken  with  the  express  purpose  of  studying 
the  work  of  the  several  denominations.  The  author  was 
equipped  for  his  task  with  a  more  than  ordinary  training  of 
mind,  breadth  of  judgment,  and  the  glow  of  spirit  necessary 
for  the  large  and  accurate  understanding  of  what  such  a 
journey  has  to  disclose.  Among  the  chapters  are  the  fol- 
lowing : 


Providence  in  Missions. 

Tiie  Principles  of  Missions — 
Tlie  Mission  Aim,  Scope, 
Motive,  Call,  Fitness,  and 
Fitting. 

Cliina — Corca — Japan. 

India. 

The  Turkish  Dominions. 

Entrance  into  Work. 

The  Problems  of  Missions. 


Tiie  Departments  of  Mission- 
ary Work  in  Their  Vari- 
ety. 

The  Ilome  and  Rest  of  the 
Missionary. 

Sketches  from  the  Mission 
Field. 

Tlic  Church  and  Missions. 

Tlie  Spiritual  Expansion  of 
Christendom. 


PcjDLisiiED  BY  HARPER    &   BROTHERS,  New  York. 

^W^  The  above  loork  in  for  sale  hy  all  booksellers,  or  will  be 
sent  hy  the  publishers,  postage  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United 
States,  Canada,  or  Mexico,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


THE  LAND  AND   THE  BOOK 

THE  LAND  AND  THE  BOOK;  or,  Biblical  Illnstra- 
tious  drawn  from  tlio  Mauuers  and  Customs,  the 
Scenes  and  Scenery,  of  the  Holy  Land.  By  William 
M.  Thomson,  D.D.,  Forty-five  Years  a  Missionary  in 
Syria  and  Palestine.  In  Three  Volumes,  8vo,  with 
many  Blustrations  and  Maps.  Price  per  volume : 
Cloth,  |6  00;  Sheep,  $7  00;  Half  Morocco  or  Half 
Calf,  $3  50;  Full  Morocco,  $10  00.  (Volumes  sold 
separately.) 

Popular  Edition  in  Three  Volumes,  8vo,  Illuminated 
Cloth,  $7  50;  Half  Leather,  %\Q  50.  {Sold  only  in 
sets.) 

Vol.  I.  Southern  Palestine  and  Jerusalem. 

Vol.  II.  Central  Palestine  and  Phcenicia. 

Vol.  III.  Lebanon,  Damascus,  and  Beyond  Jordan. 

Students  of  the  daily  life,  the  personal  and  ideographical  en- 
vironments of  Jesus  and  his  disciples,  will  find  the  work  invalua- 
ble—A'.  1".  Herald. 

His  work  is  more  than  a  mere  geographical  description  of 
Palestine,  though  he  has  given  much  attention  to  that  department; 
or  a  mere  delineation  of  Eastern  manners,  though  it  would  be 
difficult  to  find  anywhere  else  so  graphic  and  accurate  a  por- 
traiture of  the  daily  life  of  the  Orientals. — Christian  at  Work,  N.  Y. 

For  the  preacher,  the  Sunday-school  teacher,  every  Bible 
student  and  Christian  home,  the  work  will  prove  a  rare  treasure. 
There  is  no  work  that  can  come  even  near  taking  its  place. — 
Christian  Advocate,  N.  Y. 

The  information  which  may  be  derived  from  Dr.  Thomson's 
careful  and  authentic  descriptions  of  the  manners  and  customs, 
the  natural  products  and  common  sights,  of  the  Holy  Laud  is  fresh 
and  true,  and  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  works  of  other  writers, 
who  have  not,  as  a  rule,  possessed  the  advantages,  the  scholarship, 
or  the  Biblical  knowledge  of  this  veteran  authority. — Athcnmuni, 
London. 


Published  by  HARPER   &   BROTHERS,  New  York. 

e^The  above  ivm-k  is  for  sale  by  all  booksellers,  or  luill  be  sent 
hij  the  jnihlishers,  jMstacje  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States, 
Canada,  or  Mexico,  on  receipt  o/  the  price. 


ILLUSTRATED  BIBLE  DICTIONAHY 

ILLUSTEATED  BIBLE  DICTIOXARY  and  Ticasury 
of  Biblical  History,  Biography,  Geography,  Doc- 
triuo,  aud  Litcratiuc.  With  Niimcrons  Illustra- 
tions aud  Important  Chronological  Tables  and 
Maps.  By  M.  G.  Easton,  M.A.,  D.D.  Crowu  8vo, 
Cloth,  |1  50. 


Every  preaclier,  every  teacher,  and  every  Bible  student 
will  find  this  an  invaluable  aid  to  the  study  of  the  Bible.  It 
is  a  complete  and  trustworthy  book  of  reference  on  all  bibli- 
cal subjects,  handy  and  compact  in  form.  It  contains  over 
200  illustrations,  besides  numerous  maps  and  plans  (includ- 
ing a  large  colored  map  of  Palestine)  which  have  been  spe- 
cially designed,  and  embody  the  results  of  recent  travel  and 
exploration,  and  it  is  issued  at  a  price  which  places  it  within 
the  reach  of  every  student  and  jSunday-school  teacher. 


There  are  three  good  features  in  this  Dictionary:  it  is 
cheap ;  it  is  compact  in  form  ;  it  was  prepared  with  great 
care  and  learning.  The  essence  of  the  larger  works  is  here. 
It  makes  a  convenient  reference  book  for  the  table  of  the 
scholar;  it  will  prove  invaluable  to  the  preacher,  teacher, 
and  Bible  student;  it  is  amply  illustrated,  and  contains  all 
the  requisite  maps  of  Biiile  lands. — Zion's  Herald,  Boston. 

A  complete  and  useful  book  of  reference  in  the  study  of 
the  Word,  concise  and  careful,  with  the  results  of  the  most 
recent  research  in  all  departments  of  biblical  literature.  It 
is  not  sectarian,  but  is  orthodox,  and  will  be  an  efficient 
helper,  especially  to  the  Sabbath-school  teacher. —  Presby- 
terian, Philadelphia. 


PnnLiSHED  BY  HARPER   &  BROTHERS,  New  Youk. 

j8f5°"  The  above  xoork  is  for  sale  by  all  bookftcllers,  or  will  be, 
sent  by  the  publibhers,  postayc  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United 
Slateti,  Canada,  or  Mexico,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


Date  Due 


